Morlock Tunnels
This page is about the Phase 2 incarnation of the location. For other uses, see Morlock Tunnels (disambiguation).
| Location: Morlock Tunnels | |
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| First Seen: | January 2016 |
First Appearance -
Located in the system of sewerage and other tunnels beneath New York, the Morlock Tunnels were home to close on fifty homeless mutants who named themselves 'Morlocks' after the subterranean dwellers of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. In a series of cul de sacs, natural caves and abandoned storage facilities, the mutants made their dwellings, stealing or scrounging what they needed from the 'surface world' what they needed to survive.
The Morlock Tunnels are only used to describe 'dead' underground structures; ones that original use is long gone. However, they intersect regularly with Manhattan's 'live underground', including the existing subway system, sewer and utility tunnels as well as maintenance access. The Morlocks have spent significant time concealing access to their tunnels from outsiders, using fake walls and access-ways, false cave-ins, flooded tunnels and even vermin pools to dissuade would be explorers from getting too far.
The main Morlock encampment is a former groundwater shaft that was built connected to New York Water Tunnel #1 in 1910. In 1940, a series of basements were walled off and extended as a secret military research facility. However, after three years, building stopped as the threat of invasion disappeared, and the rooms were sealed off. The main building was demolished in the 1950s and covered by low-rise commercial and light industrial before being pulled down and turned into Imagination Playground Park. The honeycomb of underground rooms have pirated electricity and fresh water, although it suffers constant dampness from the shaft and has no heat. The rooms are communal, although some Morlocks have occupied the same space for decades and have earned the right to treat the space as their own. There is a small locked room where the emergency supplies and funds are kept against disaster and has been used in times of fire, flooding or other situations which have forced the Morlocks to temporarily abandon their home.
The north end of the shaft is an area referred to as the Hill. It is a two and a half underground building that was built to house pumping controls but was never finished. Over the years, it has become a temple of sorts where elder trusted Morlocks withdraw, calling themselves Those Who Dwell In Darkness. They formally renounce the upworld and house extensive knowledge of the underworld tunnels and manipulating the hydro systems for their own use. It is not looked at as a religious order or cult as of yet, but the members are deeply respected and they do much of the teaching for young Morlocks.
Plots
X-Men Mission: Fall of the Mutants
