i will tell you a story, one i used to tell to a little boy with dark hair. a silent boy who rarely laughs, who listened more closely than i realized⠀⠀———————————————
a⠀boy who⠀had a⠀name and⠀not a⠀title .
fear is a powerful ally, but feed it too often, make it too strong, and it will turn on you. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
NAME: aleksander ilyitch morozova. TITLES: general of the second army; acting regent of ravka. ALSO CALLED: the darkling, the black heretic, the black general, general kirigan, the shadow king, starless one, the starless saint.GRISHA ORDER: etherealki. GRISHA TYPE: shadow summoner. DOB: january 23, 719 AGE: 1172 (s&b). PRONOUNS: they/he. SEXUALITY: nblm. FACE CLAIM: ben barnes/janet montgomery. MODERN.HEIGHT: 6'1"/1.85 m. EYES: jet black. HAIR: dark. OTHERS: after shadow & bone, aleksander has three jagged scars running down one side of their face, narrowly missing their left eye. they are often heavily clothed and always wearing gloves to prevent other grisha from reacting to their amplifier abilities.
| MOTHER: baghra. FATHER: |
SKILLS & ABILITIES: shadow summoning, the cut, merzost, sun summoning (temporaril); multilingualism; musically inclined.ENNEAGRAM: 1w2. MBTI: entj. ALIGNMENT: chaotic good → lawful evil. ZODIAC: aquarius ☀, capricorn ☽ CONDITIONS: ptsd, dysthmia.✱ POSITIVE: adaptable, ambitious, dutiful, progressive, humanitarian (to an extent).
✱ NEGATIVE: manipulative, intolerant, repressive, poorly handles emotions, destructive of others and themself.
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# SASHA
@aleksander_m
they/he ☕ #01.23 ✩ nblm
1w2 ꔛ aquarius 🦴 rus/eng/fra
𝄰 NAME: aleksander ilyitch morozova. AGE: 40. BIRTHDAY: january 23, 1982. TIME OF BIRTH: 10:07A.M. NICKNAMES: sasha (family & friends), sashen'ka / sashka (nikolai).◐ HOBBIES: chess, woodworking, winemaking, violin, piano, and singing. INTERESTS: linguistics, politics, world history, macroeconomics, quantum physics and astronomy. LIKES: nikolai, whiskey, snapdragons, sauerkraut, eventually coffee.∿ OCCUPATION: history professor (specializing in global & comparative history), former political science instructor; defense attorney; human rights lawyer. IMPORTANT NOTES (verse dependent): born and raised in russia before studying in london for five years. moved to america in their mid twenties. divorced, single father of two.
RULES.
# ZELDA
or just zel !
they/them 🦕 #9TEEN ♡ filipino
+8 UST ᨓ philippines 🪦 tag/eng
✱ ABOUT THE BLOG. 𝄰 MERZOSTOVA is a private and independent roleplay blog featuring THE DARKLING from the grishaverse series by leigh bardugo. heavily canon divergent. influenced by netflix's adaptation of shadow and bone and literature. written by ZELDA, established february 2022. low to medium activity. previously @merzoverenyi.my icons use a border by creationcolor, and a heavily modified psd by whatnotcomms.✱ SHIPPING. SINGLE SHIP. i will only ever explore romantic dynamics with megaera's interpretation of nikolai lantsov. all verses may operate under the assumption that aleksander is/was involved with him. i am very open to other kinds of dynamics with proper plotting!✱ DISCLAIMERS. my writing may feature SENSITIVE TOPICS such as canon-typical death, intergenerational cycles of abuse, trauma, toxic/manipulative dynamics, murder, institutionalization, violent crimes against a wide population, sexual assault ✱ and the likes.✱ (the assault is never to or from aleksander)finally, i use SMALL FONT and FORMAT MODERATELY. you can do any formatting you want!
✱ RULES . 01. aleksander is nonbinary and uses they/he pronouns. if you will ONLY exclusively use he/him pronouns for aleksander when referring to my specific portrayal, i don't wish to interact with you. gender neutral always works best.02. sexually explicit content will NOT be present on this blog. potential mature themes are listed under my disclaimers.03. i do NOT tolerate any kind of whitewashing, rpf, cisswapping, and any sort of pedophilic or incestuous ships. adoptive relatives still count as incest.04. i am oc & crossover-friendly! i’m only likely to roleplay with muses from a different setting if i’m familiar enough with the source material.05. i will instantly BLOCK blogs containing HARRY POTTER muses. i am also wary of those with harry potter / wizarding world verses. i don't care if you're anti-jkr. she is a terf and she has explicitly stated that engagement with the universe that she created is still support.06. HARDBLOCK if you wish to break mutuals instead of softblocking. i often forget if i'm following people or mistakenly assume that tumblr has glitched out and may try to follow again. i rarely check my following / followers.07. i don't have any triggers. please let me know if i have missed tagging anything.
PLOTTING / DIVERGENCES.
my interpretation of "the darkling" is HEAVILY CANON DIVERGENT. i also recognize that they are a manipulative villain who will likely have unsavory interactions with most muses belonging to their universe. this blog is PRIMARILY PLOT DRIVEN for this same reason. i am usually more comfortable writing threads after pre-establishing a storyline or potential dynamics between our muses, so mutuals should feel free to contact me any time about anything you might be interested in writing with me. you can also feel free to fill up my INTEREST TRACKER.i do intend to explore the hard-to-swallow possibility that aleksander morozova is REDEEMABLE, and wasn't even remotely evil (though they are considerably morally grey) before alina's desertion in shadow & bone. while their sense of morality does degrade throughout the trilogy, the direction aleksander takes will be depicted as a CONSEQUENTIAL progression in light of the dehumanizing treatment that they endured in the past, and continue to endure at present. if you have a problem with that, just don't engage with this blog.with that said, i have compiled a FULL DOCUMENT detailing all of the important divergences to their characterization as well as their relationships with other characters that stray from how they are depicted in canon. i regularly update this document. common canon divergences you might find on my blog include the following:RELATIONSHIPS - linked are affiliated blogs- NIKOLAI LANTSOV . aleksander's main and prevailing romantic relationship is with nikolai lantsov. they first met during one of nikolai's supposed 'university breaks' (in reality, he has returned from his work as sturmhond to collaborate with DAVYD KOSTYK on researching the combination of grisha and otkazat'niye technology) and later sparked a secret relationship that spanned a couple of years prior to shadow & bone. while it was officially terminated as of sturmhond's mutiny in siege & storm, they resume their relationship during the events of rule of wolves (details to come).- BAGHRA . their dynamic with baghra involves a complex and nuanced inter-generational cycle of abuse. this may not seem blatant to most people because of baghra’s supposed well-meaning intentions, but i have dissected the reason why this is the case in the 'baghra morozova' section of my document linked above.- ALINA STARKOVA . the darkling's feelings for alina starkova are non-romantic. they have more of a mentor/protégé relationship, like their relationships with the other resident soldiers of the little palace 'closest' to them. this, in turn, births an inherently more toxic dynamic (mostly due to aleksander's unhealthy attachment to her power/immortality) than if they were to have romantic feelings for alina at all.- GENYA SAFINA. aleksander functions as a parental figure to genya safina for much of her arc, and did not manipulate or force her into the king's service. when genya was examined, word of her unique tailoring abilities spread through os alta and the tsarina requested for genya to serve in the grand palace as her personal handmaiden. aleksander then personally trained genya for several years in preparation for spying on the king, under the guise of perfecting her tailoring skills for the tsarina.BACKGROUND- the events leading up to the creation of the fold are vaguely lifted from the netflix show — instead of a lover, aleksander had fostered a lost child after serving in a makeshift grisha army. they decided to study merzost through their stolen pile of morozova’s journals for a much longer period than what is depicted, when caring for the child rekindled their faith in their cause despite their severed relationship with the monarchy. aleksander was grieving for the death of their child when the shadow fold was created.- the darkling’s status as a living amplifier affects more of their day to day decisions and self-presentation than what is seen in canon. while they are no longer in danger of being hunted down for their abilities (due to their position as a well-respected general of the second army), they will still wear leather gloves on the days that they are not cooped up in the privacy of their room, and not a single patch of their skin below their neck is easily accessible by any other person when going out and about.- their shadow summoning abilities are an artificial creation of ilya morozov himself, with the use of merzost. they don't technically qualify as a grisha because of this, and their unnatural tether to the making at the heart of the world makes it difficult for them to perform merzost.CANON EVENTS- SHADOW AND BONE . tba.- SIEGE AND STORM . the darkling doesn't punish genya while aboard the whaler. after sturmhond's mutiny, they dispatch her to the grand palace where she is positioned to spy on alina's party while maintaining a disguise. knowing that nikolai will be alerted of the darkling's arrival in ravka, genya secures a logging route between fjerda and ravka from vasily where the darkling can route their quiet ambush on nikolai's birthday. they also discover that genya has been feeding them false information while her allegiances wavered between the sun summoner's side and the darkling's, so they still punish her accordingly on the night of the ambush, before the events that take place in the royal chapel.- RUIN AND RISING . alina doesn't learn of their first name (aleksander) until this point. before then, the only people with knowledge of aleksander's 'true name' is baghra (their mother), genya (their perceived daughter), and nikolai (their past lover). when they are killed with their own shadows, they are physically and technically dead - and would not under any circumstance be considered remotely 'alive' if it were not for the existence of nikolai's demon.- RULE OF WOLVES . they don't end up sacrificing themself with the obisbaya ritual at the end. the canon for this book is still under the process of being fully plotted out between me and meg since i'm not completely happy with it, but i do intend for aleksander to have a more fulfilling redemption arc and be able to get rid of the blights by banishing nikolai's demon from his body.- POST - CANON . aleksander may go on and earn an honorary role as king nikolai's chancellor in court and as the high general of ravka's navy, overseeing both the first and second armies.
timeline.
⠀1427 - 1443.⠀ ⸺
first quarter / creation of the shadow fold.with the monarchy convinced that the grisha can be an advantageous resource in the war effort, aleksander pledges the grisha's military service in exchange for stable housing in os alta. during this time, aleksander fights in several wars until they earn the title of general, leading what is informally called the “second army” of ravka.the grisha are promptly displaced from the capital after a fallout between aleksander and the monarchy in 1439. with ravka once again rendered too weak to defend itself against its invaders, king yevgeni orders all grisha to resume their service, seeking to capture them by force.to effectively bar king yevgeni’s soldiers from apprehending the grisha, aleksander accidentally creates the shadow fold with merzost in 1443 — an action that would gravely set ravka back in the centuries to come.they flee the country, living in hiding among foreign lands for several decades.
⠀1891.⠀ ⸺
full moon / shadow and bone.chiefly follows show events, retaining the part where there was an attempt made on alina's life that had killed marie during the winter fete. the crows don't necessarily have to be involved, they could just be west ravkan assassins.in august 1891, a sandskiff headed to novokribirsk is attacked by volcra when the junior cartographer aboard scares them away with a burst of light. confirming that the soldier, alina starkova, is a sun summoner, aleksander immediately transfers her to the little palace so she can begin her training. while they secretly plot to weaponize the fold with the help of alina's powers, the darkling considers hunting down morozov's stag as an amplifier for alina when her progress in learning to summon the sun under baghra's tutelage moves too slowly.a few months pass before the stag is located, and by then, alina has improved so much in her training that her demonstration during the march 1892 winter fete impresses aleksander enough for them to consider telling her the truth about their identity and their true intentions with the fold that very night. baghra throws a wrench in their plans when she exposes aleksander to alina first, which leads her to run away and resist the darkling's twisted plea to save ravka.killing the stag and claiming alina's power as their own, aleksander destroys a part of novokribirsk with the shadow fold before they are stopped by alina, mal, and the crows, who all escape when aleksander is attacked by volcra.
⠀DEATH.⠀ ⸺
third quarter / ruin and rising.throughout september 1892, aleksander is left with a clean path to usurping the throne and declares themself as the regent of ravka (informally known as the shadow king). they soon wage a war against nikolai, who has been utilizing his new technology to intimidate the darkling out of the grand palace. with the help of a soldier that has defected from alina's allegiances, they discover that the spinning wheel has been made a base of operations and decide to deliver a series of attacks by the end of october 1892.they infect nikolai with merzost and kill many others, witnessing baghra's death before alina and her friends make their escape. while recruiting soldiers and gathering resources, aleksander travels to the fold and expands it into a section of west ravka. they attempt to lure alina to kribirsk by pretending that they have taken the children of her orphanage as their hostage - the plan ultimately failing when alina gains her third amplifier and kills the darkling with their own shadows. their date of death is officially marked on the 17th of november, 1892, and they are burned on a pyre alongside alina's double.
1896. ⸺
waning crescent / rule of wolves.the darkling takes a chance at redemption by accepting king nikolai's request to aid in getting rid of the blights that have been popping up all over the world. ravka is caught in a difficult war with fjerda (whose rulers seek to de-legitimize nikolai's entitlement to the crown) when they crack the code to banishing the blights for good. [full description tba.]after an official pardon from the monarchy for their efforts in saving ravka from the brink of invasion, aleksander is offered an honorary position as king nikolai's chancellor and high general presiding over the unified first and second armies.
⸺ ⠀719 - 1426.⠀
waning crescent / demon in the wood.aleksander is born to baghra and friedrich in 719. in childhood, aleksander and his mother lead nomadic lives, hopping from grisha settlement to settlement while desperately keeping their status as living amplifiers (and their past identities) a well-hidden secret. aleksander eventually separates from baghra in their twenties, traveling the world in search of her other children and other such communities, hungry for kinship.
⸺ ⠀1497 - 1890.⠀
waning gibbous / the little palace.aleksander returns to ravka with a completely new identity in 1497. having formulated a plan to convince the monarchy that the abilities of the grisha are necessary to operate useful trades between west and east ravka (and therefore stimulating the country's plummeting economy), the ravkan court begrudgingly agrees to have a grisha academy built on palace grounds for this expressed purpose.the little palace is established in 1499. aleksander spends the next few centuries creating new identities while pretending to be a descendant of the last. when the king starts drafting grisha students out to war, they reclaim their general title to resume their leadership of a now official second army of ravka.
⸺ ⠀1892.⠀
waxing gibbous / siege and storm.a month after their escape from the shadow fold, alina and mal are successfully captured by the darkling in may 1892. they are kept as prisoners on sturmhond's ship while aleksander forcibly employs their aid in searching for the second amplifier, morozov's sea whip named rusalye. sturmhond, which they have known is nikolai for a time, stages a mutiny once rusalye is secured, helping alina and mal escape from the darkling's grasp.knowing that nikolai will be alerted of aleksander's return to ravka and successfully quash their troops with enough preparation, they send genya to the grand palace to spy on their enemies and trick vasily into securing them a quiet entrance. they charge the palace with nichevo'ya during nikolai's birthday in august 1892. having discovered that genya has been feeding them false information to help alina, they punish her by subjecting her to the endless hunger of their nichevoya before chasing alina's party into the royal chapel. alina weakens aleksander by controlling their use of merzost and orders their nichevo'ya to tear down the building, the royal chapel crumbling down on aleksander soon after.
⸺ 1895.
king of scars.three years into his reign, nikolai undertakes a quest to banish the nichevo'ya demon that has been piloting his body at night. the king journeys to a sacred site that had long perished in the fold and there he eventually meets elizaveta, an old friend of aleksander's who is secretly preserving the darkling's corpse in a hidden tomb. under the guise of an obisbaya ritual meant to vanquish the demon for good, elizaveta conducts her own merzost and uses the nichevo'ya housed by nikolai to resurrect the darkling.this leads to another rupture in the making, as the nichevo'ya stays with nikolai but remains stuck between a state of existence and non-existence. blights start to appear all over the continent when the darkling is taken to the grand palace as prisoner.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
✱ ALTERNATE TIMELINE . ⠀BOOK CANON .⠀
six of crows is not integrated into the trilogy, as opposed to show events. i am very unfamiliar with soc/ck so if anyone wants to take one for the team and infodump me i will be so pleased.⠀SHOW CANON .⠀
putting this here in preparation for season 2 and season 3 of the netflix show.
✱ CANON DIVERGENT . ⠀PRINCE OF THE SUN.⠀
nikolai is the sun summoner. meg if you're reading this i'm holding you at gunpoint.
✱ ALTERNATE UNIVERSES . ⠀MODERN VARIATION.⠀ ravka in the modern era; the worldbuilding depicted in the series remains.⠀MODERN AU.⠀ aleksander is a history professor specializing in the field of global and comparative history. they were formerly a political science instructor.click here for the full list of alternate universes. this includes modern verses, historical verses, and adaptations of existing media .
SPECIAL AGENT PROFILE
| NAME | ALEKSANDER ILYITCH MOROZOV |
| ALIASES | SASHA, SASHEN'KA, SASHKA |
| RECORD ID # | M | 1 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 4 | Z |
| NATIONALITY | AMERICAN | PLACE OF BIRTH | RUSSIA |
| GENDER | NONBINARY | RACE/ETHNICITY | CAUCASIAN |
| HEIGHT | 6'1" | WEIGHT | 154 |
| EYE COLOR | BLACK | HAIR COLOR | BLACK |
| DOB | M 01 D 23 Y 1982 | AGE | 40 |
| BIOGRAPHY. TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA. |
HISTORICAL / FANTASY VERSES.EASY VIRTUE. 1933 / the great war. growing up in the end stages of tsarist russia, aleksander escapes to the english countryside while the revolution looms in the horizon. they start a family of two children with their new wife in nottinghamshire before being drafted out to the great war where they earn their 'general' rank as each of their superiors perish on the battlefield.upon the conclusion of the long war, they find themselves in france following their honorable discharge. aleksander explores and discovers their sexuality, intending to make a permanent residence due to the absence of sodomy laws - but their wife, who had traveled all the way to france to find them, eventually catches them with their lover.they return to their estate in england as an outcast to the village and even their family - turning jaded, bitter, and generally resigned while their household suffers under the weight of their prior abandonment. their wife eventually succumbs to greed and attempts to secure acres of land from their struggling neighbors who are also their family's closest and only friends.everything changes when their neighbor's eldest daughter weds to an american racer named nikolai lantsov, bringing him to the english countryside to meet her family - and by extension, aleksander's.BRIDGERTON. 1813 / regency era. baron aleksander morozov is the only son of the duchess of findley, baghra morozova. by the events of bridgerton's first season, aleksander has made their return to london from their barony in nottinghamshire, ostracized from the rest of society for a variety of reasons including their rumored involvement in the death of their own father, the eighth duke of findley.as a closeted gay man, aleksander is also poised as a mysterious - yet strapping - eligible bachelor in their forties whose only interest in finding a wife is fueled by the promise of redemption of the morozova name and the restoration of their image in the london society. click here for more details.ANASTASIA. 1927 / russian revolution. ilya morozov was one of the triggermen who shot the lantsov family dead during the russian revolution, dying out of shame for his part in the atrocity when aleksander was only a child. convincing themself that their grandfather had done an honorable thing for the betterment of russia, aleksander joins the bolsheviks once they come of age and goes on to become a dedicated general of the bolshevik army by the year 1927.around this time, a street sweeper named kolya has been parading around saint petersburg - he claims that he is the lost grand duke nikolai, the sole survivor of the lantsovs. the general is later ordered to eliminate him whether or not the claims turn out to be true, but an apparent conflict makes itself known when aleksander slowly garners romantic feelings for kolya instead.HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE. fantasy. tba.
MODERN / FUTURISTIC VERSES.DEFENSE ATTORNEY. modern. as a criminal defense attorney reluctantly representing for a white collar crime case, aleksander discovers more about their defendant, aspiring politician nikolai lantsov, than they would ever have cared to learn at first glance.SHARP OBJECTS. 2018. aleksander is a seasoned agent of the federal bureau of investigation currently struggling to redeem themself from a reputation-ruining cold case. they accept a job in the small town of wind gap, missouri to investigate the disappearance of two teenage girls, thereupon meeting nikolai lantsov - a meddlesome journalist from st. louis looking to prod aleksander for details that will eventually be used in his invasive story. click here for aleksander's profile.HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS. 2003. a multi-practice law firm is hired by a celebrity looking to sue the developers of a dating app. believing that a door has opened for them to make their long-awaited big career break, namely because of the popularity of the involved parties, aleksander grows quite desperate to secure a contract.when their peers question whether or not aleksander has the sufficient insight on romance and quick-paced dating that the case will surely necessitate, they wage a bet to prove their reliability: if they can make someone fall in love with them in ten days, the case is all theirs.RESIDENT EVIL. 2000s. tba.HUMANS. futuristic. tba.MIDNIGHT MASS. 2020. tba.SPY X FAMILY. modern. tba.
exclusives
| USER | CHARACTER | SOURCE | AUTHOR | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| @lantsarov | nikolai alexandrovich lantsov | the grishaverse | megaera | exclusive & affiliated |
| @geniyasafina | yevgeniya valeryevna safina | the grishaverse | megaera | exclusive & affiliated |
| @petervel | peter richard pevensie | the chronicles of narnia | megaera | exclusive |