Quick word of warning, this one comes across as rather harsh towards the subject, but it's something of an unavoidable consequence, or at least that's what I hit across while writing, so I'm quite open to opposing opinions on that front.
Character Study of the Week: Morgan Kell
Who: Morgan Kell
What: Colonel, 10th Skye Rangers
Colonel, Kell Hounds Mercenary Regiment
Colonel, Kell Hounds Mercenary Brigade
Member Order of the Tamar Tigers
Knight Defender of the Draconis March
Regimental Holder of St George
Baron von Arc Royal
Grand Duke Arc Royal
Margrave of the Arc Royal Theatre
When: 2986 - 3083
Weapon of Choice: 2R Archer
In a fictional setting like Battletech the status of being a legend can come about through many means. Great feats, longevity, terrifying skills, leadership in trying times, any one of these would be enough to quality a character the status of legendary. Morgan Kell encompasses all of the above.
Attempting to summarise Morgan’s history is a feat in and of itself, suffice to say out of nowhere he built up a legendary mercenary unit with only a few years of regular military service and a massive amount of money. Not just any mercenary unit, not even just an elite mercenary unit, but an elite mercenary unit of high ethical standards.
In a setting where mercenaries struggle to rise above the reputation of money chasing bandits, with many living down to this expectation, this sets the Kell Hounds out as “good guys”, a hero unit really, and that is how they are presented in their very own sourcebook.
This follows through with their commander, for units are often characterised by their leader and founder, which is more Morgan than Patrick. Though the latter certainly has his hand in, the breakdown of the unit to a battalion as Morgan enters a monastery demonstrates the nature of his priority in the unit’s leadership structure.
And then there’s that stint in a monastery. Going there after a significant battle, voluntarily reducing his unit, all things that are, in the novels and source materials, presented as highly confusing to those involved as Morgan never explained his actions until after Patrick’s death.
It’s a source of great personal drama, though realistically it has a minimal impact, Morgan slips back into command in large part because there is no one else and also because he’s freakin’ Morgan Kell.
Seriously.
Let’s digress for a moment. His ‘Mech of choice is actually a fairly good one for a commander. The Archer is still considered the meter stick for missile boat designs, and is the classic fire support unit since it throws out forty missiles at long range. What’s more it mounts very heavy armour for the time period.
More importantly it discourages getting in close, and while those forty missiles are potent the spread nature of the subsequent damage combined with the range limitations discourage getting in close. This is ideal since you really don’t want your commander charging into the middle of things, you want him standing back, throwing fire when and where necessary, but ultimately far back enough that he can concentrate on the big picture.
How does Morgan survive a duel against a Warhammer in this thing?
Plot. And I don’t just mean author fiat, Morgan wins against Yorinaga not by outshooting or outfighting him, or even with some fancy Phantom ‘Mech ability on Phantom ‘Mech ability interplay, but rather by out honouring him.
It’s a curious thing because it relies heavily on samurai honour, a lump of metaphysics and, well, I have some trouble following it but it boils down to “You can kill me but you can’t defeat me therefore you have lost.”
Hence Yorinaga commits seppuku, Patrick is avenged and Morgan is aggrieved for whole new reasons.
Why? Morgan Kell is, in theory, a complex individual, I say in theory because it is difficult to say from an outside perspective, which is all we have to go on, and it can be a challenge to differentiate complex from unnecessarily convoluted, a distinct risk in the Warrior Trilogy where complex and convoluted don’t just walk hand in hand, they cavort through a field of wildflowers together.
Suffice to say it is more that Morgan is incensed that a human life, a talented MechWarrior, even one that killed his brother, dies for no reason other than some cultural dictate. His sense of honour, justice and personal ethics are offended by the nation that requires this act of one of its greatest warriors, a caste he feels deserves great respect.
There is a deliberate effort to characterise him as complicated, there’s his service history, the brief adventure with cousin Katrina Steiner in the Periphery, his time in a monastery, the reason for his entering the monastery. Sadly none of these are unique in and of themselves, or lumped together. Mysterious past, strange motivations, religious or spiritual pursuits, these are short hand for interesting characters and are paradoxically somewhat boring due to common use.
This is why Morgan has never been a main character, he has all these attributes making him an interesting character that are so common he’s at risk of not being that interesting. Just as important it is difficult to successfully characterise such an individual without making them boring or diminishing their awesomeness, so instead simply knowing him becomes an interesting trait for other characters.
Phelan is his son and has a starting bonus, Dan Allard falls into his circle of influence and becomes more prominent as he is dragged along with him in the grand sweep of adventure, even Victor, heir to the Federated Commonwealth, can point to him and speak to him as an equal, showing how important Victor is, which considering his status as a Prince is really just another flavour of the same problem, lumping more and more traits on a major character to hammer home how important and impressive he is.
This sounds like a lot of criticism for the character of Morgan Kell, but like so many of the elder characters of Battletech he was first written when the setting was far more pulp sci-fi. In fact Morgan in particular is very pulp sci-fi, having the Phantom ‘Mech ability, something that has never been explained, has no place in the harder military pulp setting and has been not so quietly dropped from the rules except for the occasional sly dusting off when referring to the absolute smallest number of individuals. It has no place in the modern setting, and realistically neither does a character like Morgan Kell. He has become a relic of an earlier form of the fiction.
Not that this stops him from being a legend, it just means he becomes harder and harder to employ within the fiction. The transition means he was side-lined faster than most other characters, age, losing an arm and political responsibilities all conveniently take him from the field as said field starts becoming particularly bloody and ethically challenging for a good many warriors.
Not that any of this stops him from being thick in the plot in ways that occasionally defy reality.
It hurts a little to admit it, mostly because it was raised in such a childish manner (itself a cunning political and manipulative move), but Katrina and Sun-Tzu had a point, Morgan Kell had no place at the Star League conference table. He had no political position beyond planetary, maybe regional title, no official sway, commanded a rogue section of a nation and thus had no official military capacity beyond being a mercenary commander.
He’s there only because he is an important person in the fiction.
Or if you want to look at it from a setting perspective it’s a conference about fighting the Clans and he commands a sizable section of border with said foe, and Victor, always ignoring politics in favour of military reality, needs him along for expertise and support. The childishness that resulted was inevitable, and no, Candace didn’t help by offering him up a world of her own and offering marriage. That’s political farce.
That’s a lot of criticism for one small scene, but considering events that follow it’s quite a portentous event, showing just what the Second Star League is: a group of bickering politicians who can only just barely hang together to face down and destroy a distinct threat. Once that threat was gone the whole thing fell to pieces and then we had the Jihad. Morgan Kell being Morgan Kell made that scene easy.
More realistic was his going to Zaniah and retrieving Peter Steiner-Davion. It was his old refuge and Peter was only going to be dragged out by someone of significant political and martial standing that he personally recognised and respected. A very short list.
It is Morgan’s last direct use in terms of plot, and possibly the best, as it requires nothing special of him, no amazing skills, no ridiculous feats, in fact he comes across as quite mortal, wishing he had a canteen of water as he made a long, dry walk along a hot path.
This is a long way from the Kell Hounds sourcebook where he looked and came across like a swashbuckling hero.
Again, that was a different time, but in that time Morgan served an important purpose, one starting in the Kell Hounds sourcebook, where the unit and the Kells in particular come across as different thinkers, their honourable approach marking them as unusual for the time.
This marks them as someone for changing times, which is where the fiction was at a time. Though the game universe had just started out the setting itself was one of a crossroads.
Morgan Kell marked that.
That the setting evolved beyond his characterisation to diminish his usefulness does not diminish what he is, a founding element of the setting where he embodied the adventure, the excitement, the drama of what Battletech wanted, and turned out, to be. He’s a major part of the early novels and continues to be involved through to the Jihad, he turned up in major scenarios involving three different nations and tangled with, depending on how you count things seven or eight factions.
Having outlandish capabilities, in the cockpit and in hand to hand combat, is just a feature of what he was created to be in the beginning. The setting may move on but unfortunately Morgan’s characteristics have to stay or else the character becomes worse than unrealistic, he becomes unreliable. Retcons can’t be applied to a character like this without disrupting the setting as a whole.
So there we have Morgan Kell, one of the giants of the setting who, unfortunately, outlasted his usefulness, but left a permanent impression on the setting, and even arguably kicked it off for the betterment of all.
