Mortis

Mortis
English Name	Mortis
Japanese Name	モーティス
Appellations	Atashi/Watashi (Pronoun) Mortis (Mutsumi, Nyamu, Raana, Sakiko, Taki) Mortis-chan (Soyo) Mortis-san (Umiri)
Band Information
Band
Position	Rhythm guitaristAfter Odi et amo; as part of Wakaba Mutsumi.
Instrument	SCHECTER EX-24-7st Ave Mujica Proto Model
Image Color	#779977
Background Information
Gender	Female
Birthday	January 14
Zodiac	Capricorn (♑︎)
Height	153 cm
Education Information
School	Tsukinomori Girls' Academy
Year	First Year
Class	1-A
Portrayals
Japanese	Watase Yuzuki (渡瀬結月)
Signature

Mortis (モーティス) is an alter of Wakaba Mutsumi who has served as her "savior" since childhood. As they share a body, she attends Tsukinomori Girls' Academy as a first-year student and eventually plays as the rhythm guitarist for Ave Mujica under the stage name Mortis (モーティス).

Prior to developing an individual identity, she was childhood friends with Sakiko. She is also classmates with Soyo.

Appearance

Mortis shares Mutsumi's appearance and wardrobe in the physical world, but is typically depicted with smaller pupils.

Headspace

In the headspace, Mortis typically appears wearing her Ave Mujica stage costume. However, she occasionally appears in the body's typical casual clothes. Both herself and Mutsumi are shown to have an inconsistent and malleable appearance in their mind, with both appearing as dolls and demonstrating capacity to shapeshift into a more monstrous form.

As a Doll

Mortis' doll form

When Mortis first appears in Quid facim?, she takes on the appearance of a round plush doll of roughly knee height wearing their stage costume. This appearance is also shown to be malleable, with the doll at one point donning a suit and tie when appearing as a television presenter.

 

Background

Mutsumi has dissociative identity disorder, formed through severe neglect and trauma that occurred early in her childhood. According to Mortis, she and "Mutsumi-chan" were once only two of the many alters within their mind, which she describes as separate "roles" who would present outwardly in different social contexts. Mortis was "the social one", while "Mutsumi-chan" was "the child who perfectly fits into [their] family." It was in this state that Mutsumi befriended Sakiko: though the latter remains ignorant to this fact, it was the role who would later take the name "Mortis" whom Sakiko remembers most vividly from their youth. Though neither "role" had yet gained a distinct sense of self at this point, Mortis recalls talking and playing with "Mutsumi-chan" in their early childhood, implying these "roles" were already to some extent distinct and internally-communicative.

Later in their childhood, "Mutsumi-chan" witnessed a performance by the guitarist Mortin, which inspired her and made her start playing the guitar. According to Mortis, this sequence of events led her to gaining a concrete consciousness and sense of self, causing the other roles to become dormant. However, because Mortis held onto her role as "Mutsumi-chan's savior," she alone remained, eventually adopting the name and appearance of their character in Ave Mujica.

After Mortis takes control of the body to protect "Mutsumi-chan", the two become belligerent with one another over their differing views on primarily three things - Sakiko, Ave Mujica, and CRYCHIC. During their fights, an "audience" made up of dozens of other "Mutsumi"s often observe, implied by Mortis to be the other "roles" pushed into dormancy after "Mutsumi-chan" solidified her identity around the guitar. Their internal conflict culminates when Mortis pushes Mutsumi-chan off from their mental "stage" into a deep abyss, causing the latter to go temporarily dormant and prompting celebration from their mental audience in Ne vivam si abis. Mortis, however, is overwhelmed with a deep remorse. During Ave Mujica's performance of Imprisoned XII in Odi et amo., she chooses to follow Mutsumi-chan into the abyss, where they reconcile and embrace as their forms blur and fade as their body begins an uncharacteristically expressive guitar performance.

Though their mental state after this point is not directly elaborated upon in the anime, Mortis is seen directly reflected in a hand mirror which the body holds up to examine during Ave Mujica's curtain call at the end of Per aspera ad astra. According to the anime's director Kakimoto Koudai, Mutsumi's mind returned to its fragmented state from childhood after the two primary "personalities" reconciled and faded: both Mortis and "Mutsumi-chan" continue to exist as two of many "roles" within their system as they did in childhood, with neither solely controlling or dominating the body.

 

Personality

Compared to "Mutsumi-chan", Mortis is significantly more extroverted, expressive, and emotionally forthright. As "Mutsumi-chan's savior", Mortis is motivated above all by her concern and care for her fellow alter. After she assumes control of the body, her natural charisma and stage presence cause her to become the center of the band, with Uika, Umiri, and Nyamu all recognizing her as having improved the group's strained relationship. However, her cordial personality masks an impulsivity and lack of social awareness, manifesting in a blunt emotional honesty which frequently places her in conflict with others. While Mortis can be seen as emotionally perceptive, being the only member to recognize and note Uika's pattern of dishonesty, she lacks the cunning or interpersonal skills to make effective use of this intuition, seen most clearly in how she inadvertently isolates herself and undermines the cohesion of the band after declaring her hatred for Sakiko.

When navigating new social situations or under stress, Mortis frequently results to mimicry. She most frequently imitates Sakiko or Soyo, the former of which appears to form the basis of her personality. While her typical mannerisms are not wholly unusual for a girl her age, she often becomes childish and petulant when frustrated, as seen when arguing with her band in Acta est fabula. or when Umiri makes her walk the long route to her apartment in Belua multorum es capitums.

As with "Mutsumi-chan", she suffers episodes of psychosis when intensely distressed, most frequently seen in her attempts to call "the doctor" through a ballet shoe when "Mutsumi-chan" was unable to regain consciousness in the headspace. However, she is shown to be a relatively ordinary and reasonable girl in normal circumstances, as seen in her coherent conversations with Soyo and Umiri, when explaining her mental condition to Sakiko, and in recognizing the complex emotional context of CRYCHIC's final performance attempting to explain this to Mutsumi-chan.

Mortis' speech patterns fluctuate in formality, maturity, and eloquence. For example, she uses both "watashi" and "atashi" as personal pronouns in different social contexts.

Even after developing an independent identity and self-preservation instinct, Mortis does not initiate conflict with "Mutsumi-chan" directly, often framing her actions as being in the other's best interest. Her choice to risk her existence to reach "Mutsumi-chan" in their mental abyss after successfully establishing her own dominance demonstrates this care is fundamental to her nature, visibly expressing joy and relief upon reaching her even as she fades.

 

Etymology

Mortis (モーティス) means "death" in Latin. This stagename is derived from one of the lunar lacus, that being Lacus Mortis (meaning "lake of death").

Trivia

• Mortis features prominently in the Easter Egg "C-If" route of the 2025 Ave Mujica April Fool's "Mineral Natural Life" Web Game. Entering "20204" into the number pad causes the game's call center setting to collapse, instead leading the player to a voiced scenario featuring a panicked Mortis attempting to wake "Mutsumi-chan", with Sakiko later interrupting their conversation to collect Mutsumi for practice.