Third One's the Charm

Question: Is the Morrigan really one person, or three people? Or do the myths offer more support to the idea that the term 'Morrigan' is a title held by any pissed off female war leader, and the title might just be held by some people longer than others?

While there are some schools of scholarly thought that believe that female Irish war leaders might have used the title of Morrigan for purposes of shock and awe on the battlefield, that practice shouldn't be confused with the real thing; there is most definitely a mythological entity called the Morrigan, and she's her own show whether or not there were also mortals using her name. A mortal war leader calling herself the Morrigan might be badass on the field, but she isn't going to be making binding prophetic announcements or shapechanging like it ain't no thang. I would suggest, however, that if you use the idea of little Morrigans, it might be fun to explore how they're connected to the big one - are they related? Does she give them any special blessing? Do they have nothing to do with her and not realize what crazy thin ice they tread by using her name?

As far as whether or not the Morrigan is truly triplicate, that mostly depends on which scholarly theory you like best. When the Morrigan appears in myth, it's always as herself singly, hitting on the dudes until they drop dead or ruining everything with declarations of doom. Those who stick to a pure interpretation of the stories (handed down by word-of-mouth and recorded by Christian monk revisionists, so "pure" is not really a good word here) won't find much to support her as a goddess who is actually three instead of one. But ancient Irish art that depicts her (or is thought to depict her) often shows her standing with two other unexplained women, and debate continues to rage over whether these are attendants, other goddesses of the pantheon (specifically her sisters), symbolic figures or truly separate aspects of the Morrigan herself. The triplicate goddess theory is especially popular, I suspect in part because of the nice parallels it historically made with the Holy Trinity of Christianity.

If you do roll with the Morrigan as a triple goddess, it's pretty clear that she's the star of the show and that her alternate aspects don't get nearly as much press or respect. No one can even agree on who exactly make up the other two parts of her triad; Anand, Badb, Fea, Macha and Nemain are all attested as alternate names of her other parts, and few of them have nearly the impressive resume of their sister. I generally tend to favor Badb and Macha, since the former is often doing things that clearly seem to be the Morrigan's area and the latter is outright noted to be an aspect of the Morrigan in late texts (and also pretty badass for a pregnant lady).

If you don't want to use the Morrigan as a triple goddess because you don't want to wade into that weird pool of theoretical symbolism, it's also perfectly easy to just treat the other two ladies (whichever of them you prefer) as her sisters, goddesses who resemble her but are not Legend 12 due to their lack of comparable badassery. They could easily accompany her around, but could be free agents if necessary. Another scholarly theory points to the Morrigan's similarity to the Norse goddess Freya, and suggests that the women shown with her in art might represent a host of valkyrie-like followers that come with her into battle, making it easy for them to be Followers of any power you like, or even for all five of the possible Morrigan analogues to be with her at any given time, thus fostering confusion and awe (similar to Ares rolling into battle with all his panic-causing children).

When you get into scholarly theory (and, especially in Celtic and Norse myth, you really can't avoid it since it's almost all there is to go on), every Storyteller pretty much has to make a choice as to what they like best, feel will work most smoothly, and fits their game's atmosphere the snuggest.

We personally like to keep the Morrigan ambiguous; sometimes she shows up alone, sometimes she shows up with other scary ladies, and none of the PCs have ever wanted to get close enough to really figure that out, so her true nature remains one of the game's many mysteries. Triple or double gods are certainly possible - our PCs have met Hecate, who confused them pretty severely - but whether or not the Morrigan's one of them is a matter of debate.