The Morning

The Morning is a Celestial being credited with the creation of all flora in the Lakes. He is a humble, gentle soul who loves the people of the Lakes, but does not understand human conflict or culture and frequently embarrasses himself as a result. Despite his frightening appearance, he longs for the comfort of true companionship. He is usually portrayed in mythology alongside The Thorn, who, as the creator of fauna, is typically depicted as his equal. The Morning is also a symbol of good luck in most places.

Vita
The Morning first began walking the land around the same time as the other Cardinal Gods, The Thorn, The Engine, and The Conspiracy. After The Engine set the waters in the land, The Morning placed every plant in the ground to grow. To this day, he is the only Cardinal God who has never deviated from his original goal; he still wanders around, helping flowers bloom and gifting trees with fruit.

Despite his hundreds of years doing the same thing, The Morning did develop and grow as a person during said time. He was initially completely uninterested in humans as The Thorn and The Conspiracy were creating them, but at some point a few centuries later, their culture and creative tendencies caught his eye. He began to invest himself in them, and due to his gentle nature, was accepted by most of the people as a kind sort of monster. He began getting invitations to festivals and social outings, and is now simply expected to appear at many of them (which can also be attributed to the belief that he is a symbol of luck.) In addition, he and Fleur-de-Lis can be directly credited with the creation of the Gold Lake August Rally. However, despite all of this excitement, he always continued to prioritize the trees over everything.

He has come into conflict with other Celestials very few times, and it has never been in direct response to something he has done. He has defended The Thorn numerous times when coming under fire for the creation of Forest Dog, and was one of the few who disagreed with The Journey's policy of killing trespassers on the spot. After the death of The Conspiracy, it was speculated that The Morning may have been partly to blame, as he refused to comment on the situation and disappeared from public view for a while. However, defense from Sin Mother, The Rapture and The Pestilence eventually cleared his name, and even the Mono stated they didn't believe he was responsible.

Personality
The Morning is widely considered the most approachable of the "Gods" tiers of Celestials. Unlike other such high-ranking beings, he does not think of himself as above humans, and in fact considers himself one of them. He is either completely oblivious to the Celestial tier system, or simply doesn't care. He loves to make friends and appear at social events, but at the same time, he easily becomes bashful and shy around others, especially those he's just met. In addition, he's quite cuddly and lovable, and is fond of physical contact, unaware that his cold, bony body makes this less than pleasant for most.

The Morning is sensitive and loving, but his plants and his plants alone take precedence over any new pals he's met. He is extremely in touch with nature, to the point where he can revive entire orchards in the dead of winter if he pleases. He wanders the land looking for environmental damage and does his best to fix it, but has been known to become upset and withdrawn in areas of heavy pollution and development. He is also very disoriented in large cities, and when frightened, he tends to "wilt" and then go to sleep, like his flora. He does not fight directly against human interference with nature, but he will gently correct errors such as the cutting of forests by passively solving the damage. According to The Pestilence, however, this process of eternally working to fix mistakes made by man causes him a great deal of stress. A number of other gods believe he would be better off directly confronting people about their behaviours, but he finds this idea to be too harsh and cold.

Appearance
The Morning is an astoundingly tall being, whose full height reaches up to approximately 11 feet. His body up to his neck is similar to that of a very pale, lanky and skeletal human, and his bones often show through his clothes. He is always cold to the touch, and shakes quite noticeably even when standing still, but his skin is smooth and described as feeling like marble. His head, however, is a mass of what looks like television static and doesn't have a defined physical form. On rare occasions, recognizable images will appear in the static, but they are usually completely random; such images include cityscapes, household objects or pets, human hands, and other unrelated images.

The Morning is one of the few high-ranking Celestials to wear modern human clothing, and is somewhat infamous for his sense of style. He likes "cool jeans" and bright-coloured shoes, often Converse, and layers sensible sweaters on top - which sometimes have gaudy or unusual patterns. As his limbs are distended and his hands and feet are abnormally large and bony, most of his clothing is made specially for him.

Despite his unusual appearance not seeming to fit with his floral theme, if one only looks at his stature and silhouette, he is, in fact, a dandelion.

Relationships
As he is one of the most social beings in the Lakes, The Morning has more important connections than nearly anyone else. He is said to know everybody, and he allegedly likes everybody. Here are some of his most relevant relations and how they operate.
 * The Thorn - More than anyone else, The Thorn is depicted as an equal to The Morning. Though they are understood to be more like business partners than friends, many of their portrayals in Lakes storytelling show them as inseparable. In reality, The Morning is much more likely to make daytime appearances to the general public and is highly independent of The Thorn, but the two do consider each other equal opposites and have always been on good terms. The Morning has also frequently acted as a public voice for The Thorn, defending him against accusations of creating monsters (especially in reference to Forest Dog) and trying to dispel rumours of The Thorn being a bad omen.
 * The Engine - During the time of the Lakes' creation, The Morning was the only one never to come into direct conflict with The Engine's rash nature. He respects his work, as his plants needed The Engine's water to grow, but he never interacted with him much after they initially parted ways. Years later, after the death of The Conspiracy, The Engine made a rare public statement commonly perceived to be slander against The Morning; he stated that "an innocent man wouldn't shy away from the spotlight he always seeked," referencing The Morning's unwillingness to discuss the death. This accusation resulted in The Pestilence and The Rapture splitting off from The Engine's rule. Despite the controversy, The Morning never thought less of The Engine for his statement, nor did he ever try to spoil The Engine's name in return.
 * The Rapture - The Morning considers The Rapture to be one of his closest friends. The Rapture has always acted as a sort of upbeat mentor, and both of them - along with The Pestilence - are considered the most "human" out of all of the gods. They frequently appear at events together, and both are culturally iconic and well-liked by the Lakes people. In addition, The Rapture's support after The Conspiracy's death turned public support back in his favour, for which The Morning is eternally grateful.
 * White Birch - White Birch was the first and only human created by The Morning, and she later went on to create the rest of her sisters - all of whom he considers to be daughters. He admits to being slightly alienated from them, as they all became involved with Fever Box and his gang, with whom The Morning has no contact, but he does still do his best to keep in touch with White Birch specifically. In return, she does her best to show support whenever his name comes up in the media, as well as attending any and all rallies in the hopes of seeing him again.
 * The Conspiracy - Not much is known about The Morning's relationship with The Conspiracy before her death, other than they were supposedly on decent terms with each other. They worked together on the creation of the Lakes and then split off without much contact in the following years. It is known that she respected him for his charisma among the Lakes people, but detractors of his name often ignore this to suggest he was responsible for her death. He has, however, been proven not guilty, and his only statement on the death was that he was sorry she died, and that he would miss her.
 * Fleur-de-Lis - The Morning considers Lis to be the closest thing to a younger brother he could have. The two have known each other for nearly four centuries, though how exactly they met when Lis has always lived on the water is unknown. It is through Lis that The Morning met the other Spirits, and his frequent trips to visit Gold Lake eventually resulted in the founding of the Gold Lake August Rally. The friendship is an odd one to outsiders, as The Morning has never claimed an interest in death, nor has Lis ever seemed particularly invested in the wellbeing of plants. Regardless, it is an undeniable (and unusual) companionship that has been firmly established for hundreds of years.
 * The Journey - The uproar over The Journey killing tourists is the only Celestial controversy in which The Morning has ever become deliberately involved. Though he bears no ill will towards her, he openly dislikes the way she even speaks of outsiders and has spoken out against her on numerous occasions. The Journey thinks of The Morning as a human-loving pushover, and had no problem accusing him of The Conspiracy's death; yet, oddly enough, most of the vitriol in their relationship comes from The Journey's side. Her public statements on him have ranged from unsupportive to borderline hateful, but The Rapture keeps her from physically harming him. The Morning's true thoughts on the situation are unknown.

Trivia

 * The Morning is a fan of folk music, as well as modern pop and hip-hop - though he doesn't really understand the latter.
 * He is extremely diurnal, in direct conjunction with flowers closing at sundown, as well as with The Thorn being an entirely nocturnal creature. As his name coincidentally suggests, he wakes up as soon as the sun rises, and unless there's some sort of festival going on, he will typically find somewhere to sleep immediately after sundown. This also makes him one of the few high-ranking Celestials with an active sleep/wake cycle, along with The Thorn, The Husband, The Mouse and The Sweep.
 * Despite animals not being his area of expertise, he does love insects and birds almost as much as his own creations.
 * According to Aurora, the Queen, The Morning is at least moderately colourblind, and needed the assistance of the Northern Lights to add colour to his flowers and fruit. However, this is approached differently in his own myth, The Birth of Flora, in which he was stated to have taken inspiration from the Lights, but they did not get directly involved. As the former legend is one told almost exclusively by the Borealis family, the latter is typically accepted as the more truthful tale.
 * Oddly, The Morning's body is incredibly dense for his thin stature. He weighs almost 400 pounds, despite being downright skeletal in most places on his body, and (presumably) not having a skull at all. Yet, this doesn't affect his inherent delicate gentleness.