𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆

John Murphy was born approximately a century after the world ended. When the nuclear annihilation of Earth became imminent, a group of space stations consolidated to become the Ark, and his ancestors were among its first residents. He grew up on Farm Station with his mother and his father, Alex, who adored him. By Murphy's account, it was a happy childhood.

Tragically, that all changed when he was ten years old, when he got the flu. Desperate to save his son, Alex stole medicine from the Ark's rations — a crime punishable by death. Alex was arrested, and although he begged the Chancellor for mercy, he was executed via airlock in a custom known colloquially as "floating". Devastated, young John's mother became resentful of him and blamed him for his father's demise. She drank herself to death shortly after, leaving him orphaned.

When he was thirteen, Murphy set fire to the arresting officer's quarters. Because he was underage when he was captured and charged with the crime, he was locked up rather than floated, which would only befall him once he turned eighteen.

That's not what happened. When he was seventeen, he was among the 100 expendable juvenile delinquents taken abruptly from their cells and sent down to Earth in an experimental mission to determine whether the planet was again survivable.

On Earth, Murphy acted as Bellamy Blake's second-in-command as they rapidly dominated the rest of the 100 and established a brutal makeshift society. He quickly fell out of favor with Bellamy when Wells Jaha, the son of the Chancellor, was killed. The murder was pinned on Murphy and a mob of delinquents, itching for any excuse to get back at him for his cruel treatment of them, strung him up in an attempted execution by hanging. After the real killer confessed and Murphy was cut down, he went after her, intent on revenge. This ultimately led to his banishment from the 100's camp.

While wandering alone in the woods, Murphy was captured by a group of terrestrial natives referred to by the 100 as the Grounders. He was tortured for days, revealing everything about his peers to his captors. Then he was allowed to escape, unwittingly bringing a biological weapon in the form of a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever along with him when he returned to the camp. It spread rapidly among the group, and in the chaos, Murphy murdered two of the delinquents responsible for tying his noose. He attempted to hang Bellamy, as well, but was thwarted by the efforts of Raven Reyes and a handful of other delinquents, forced to make his escape. He shot Raven in the process, damaging her nerves and inflicting her with a permanent disability.

Since the 100 experiment had successfully determined that the planet could support human life, the people of the Ark arrived and restored order among the delinquents. Murphy was allowed to return with the others to the newly established Camp Jaha. He embarked on a mission with a small search party to locate some of the missing delinquents who were believed to have been kidnapped by Grounders, but after his partner went berserk and massacred eighteen peaceful Grounder villagers, Murphy decided to split off from the group again and take his chances outside of camp.

Oddly enough, the Chancellor himself split from his namesake camp with a small group of followers in search of some mythical City of Light. Although a skeptic, Murphy elected to travel with the pilgrims out of curiosity and lack of anyplace else to belong. Thelonious Jaha took Murphy under his wing, attempting to act as a mentor figure to the bitter and lonely boy, but it didn't quite unfold as planned.

On their journey, the pilgrims were first lured then robbed by a group of scavengers. Among them was a beautiful mutant exile named Emori, and Murphy was instantly smitten despite her betrayal. They parted ways too soon for his liking.

The brutal desert crossing killed off the other members of the pilgrimage until only Murphy and Jaha were left. They finally reached the island where the City of Light was meant to be located, but the trip left Murphy injured and Jaha continued on without him, chasing after a drone. Murphy took shelter in a nearby lighthouse bunker that was fully stocked with supplies dating back to before the nuclear apocalypse. He was comfortable there until he realized its previous occupant had committed suicide. When he attempted to flee, he discovered that he was now locked inside, too.

Trapped and isolated in the lighthouse for 86 days, Murphy studied video footage that the bunker's owner had left behind, learning all about an artificial intelligence called A.L.I.E. that had triggered the nuclear launches which destroyed the world. When he finally escaped the bunker, he discovered that Jaha had been brainwashed by A.L.I.E. and that they were the ones who had locked him inside until their "work" was finished.

Fearing A.L.I.E.'s influence, Murphy seized the opportunity to part ways with Jaha after being reunited with Emori. He partnered with her to rob travelers in the woods until he himself was ambushed and taken prisoner by the followers of Commander Lexa, the divine warlord of the Grounder nations. At the Commander's temple in Polis, Murphy was tortured by Lexa's Flamekeeper, Titus, because he was found carrying a holy symbol: the key to the City of Light, given to him by Jaha and A.L.I.E.

Once finished with his inquisition, Titus intended to frame Murphy for an assassination attempt on Wanheda — that is, Clarke Griffin, who had graduated from leader of the delinquents to Lexa's romantic and diplomatic companion and caused widespread political turmoil in the process. But by tragic mistake, Titus's bullet hit Lexa instead of Clarke.

Dreading what would happen if Lexa's psychopathic successor Ontari were to rise to the throne, Titus removed the Flame (an AI similar to A.L.I.E.) from Lexa's brain stem and gave it to Clarke so that she could find an alternate successor. Murphy aided in Clarke's escape before being taken prisoner and forced into sexual slavery by Ontari, who named him her new Flamekeeper after Titus killed himself. Jaha arrived soon after and gave Ontari the key to the City of Light, putting her under A.L.I.E.'s spell. She proceeded to send Murphy to the dungeon along with the other nonbelievers.

The prisoners of the dungeon conspired and managed to escape. Murphy reunited with Clarke and Bellamy to help them defeat A.L.I.E., who in the meantime had infected the minds of almost everyone they knew. While Murphy kept her alive with an infusion of Nightblood to counteract its radioactive effects, Clarke took the Flame and entered the City of Light, where she confronted and destroyed A.L.I.E.

Now free of artificial control, the Grounders blamed Skaikru (that is, the people from the sky) for bringing ruin to their civilization. As he and the rest of the people from the Ark prepared to leave Polis, Murphy asked Emori to return to Arkadia (former Camp Jaha) to live with him among his people. However, as tensions rose, Murphy changed his mind and reasoned the two of them would once again be safer on their own. Their freedom was short-lived, as they ran out of food and had to find a way to make themselves useful to Arkadia anyway.

With a second apocalypse looming in the form of a residual radiation wave (called Praimfaya by the Grounders), the Arkadians desperately needed to find a way to shelter during the storm, which was likely to last at least five years. Murphy and Emori led a small group to the island where A.L.I.E. had been discovered, to a lab that had once belonged to the AI's creator. There, they devised a plan to return to space and shelter on what remained of the Ark's Ring while the rest of the Arkadians and Grounders fought over an underground bunker on Earth. In the end, six of them made it to the Ark while Clarke stayed behind to assist in their shuttle's takeoff.

Murphy spent the next six years on the Ring with the affectionately-dubbed Spacekru. While the others grew closer and became a sort of family unit, Murphy felt increasingly alienated, even by his girlfriend. Everyone else seemed to find a way to make themselves useful while Murphy languished, falling into a depression that culminated in a bitter breakup between himself and Emori. While isolating himself in a distant section of the Ring, he was the first to notice the presence of a nearby spaceship identified as Eligius IV. Hoping to find enough fuel to make their way back to Earth, Spacekru left the Ark on a small transport shuttle and boarded the Eligius, which was empty except for several hundred former inmates in cryosleep. The Eligius, it seemed, had been a mining expedition staffed by prison laborers.

They soon discovered that some of the laborers had escaped and made their way back to Earth to settle in the one spot of green (which they called Eden) left in the ruined landscape of the planet. There, they'd discovered Clarke and taken her prisoner. Spacekru, astonished to learn that Clarke was even still alive, immediately decided to launch a rescue mission. Murphy stayed behind with Raven in order to hold the rest of the sleeping prisoners hostage during negotiations, prepared to kill all of them if things went south so that Raven wouldn't have to shoulder the burden.

Outmaneuvered, Murphy and Raven were themselves taken hostage and brought back to Earth, eventually drawn into the battle between the Eligius prisoners and what remained of humanity on Earth, all fighting to claim Eden for themselves. Renewed with purpose in the fight for his life, Murphy and Emori repaired their relationship just in time for Murphy to take a bullet. When McCreary, a bitter leader of the Eligius crew, decided that if they couldn't have Eden then no one could and launched a missile to destroy it, Murphy urged Emori to leave him behind and escape on the ship. She refused, and the two of them barely managed to make it on board before the bomb hit took out what was left of life on Earth.

With no other choice, the remaining members of humanity on the ship decided to put themselves into cryosleep and wait until Earth was habitable again. After a decade, Earth remained dead, and the ship instead set course for the nearest habitable planet. 

125 years later, Murphy woke along with the others to find himself staring at a lush green moon called Alpha. He joined the first expedition crew to explore their new home, where they discovered the descendants of another Eligius mission living in an idyllic city called Sanctum. This society held dark secrets, as it was led by a council of body-snatchers who called themselves the Primes. By backing up their consciousness to something called a mind drive (a technology similar to the Flame), they had unlocked the secret to immortality and built an entire religion to supply them with fresh bodies. 

After a brush with death that shook Murphy to the core, he agreed to betray his friends in order to secure immortality for himself and Emori. The two of them became Nightbloods and received mind drive implants, posing as the Prime siblings called Daniel and Kaylee Lee to maintain the illusion of control over Sanctum. As the Primes began to take down his people, though, Murphy turned on them and used his new position to ensure their downfall.

In the wake of their society's collapse and the invasion of their home by the Earthlings, the people of Sanctum were close to uprising when Murphy and Emori — still pretending to be Daniel and Kaylee Prime — stepped in to lead them toward reconciliation with the people of Earth.

John Murphy is a survivor.

That's a less virtuous thing to be than legends would have you believe. He's not the kind of survivor that people aspire to be in times of hardship. No, he's the coward. The traitor. The cockroach. He has to be. He was incarcerated and sentenced to death for arson at the tender age of thirteen, his execution to be carried out on his eighteenth birthday.

Even before his arrest, he was an orphan. His father had been executed for stealing medicine and his mother blamed ten-year-old Murphy for it, for being ill, until the day she drank herself to death. The arson was revenge against a system that seemed to exist just to destroy his life. The only person who wanted to keep him alive was himself.

Loathed by his mother and his society, Murphy was shaped in his early years by the idea of himself as the bad guy. And because for so long people expected only the worst from him, he played right into those expectations. How could he ever be a good person when everyone around him had already decided he was bad? He might as well be exactly the asshole they wanted him to be.

There's no sugarcoating it. Murphy is objectively a terrible person. When he was younger, he bullied and abused his peers. He threatened lives. He took them. But while the other delinquents around him were responsible for the same crimes (and worse), it was Murphy alone who was ostracized and cast as the antagonist in their lives - a judgment that continues to this day.

It's easy to hate Murphy. He rarely sees reason to be kind. He's sarcastic and snide and doesn't play by the rules of polite society, even by post-apocalyptic standards. He pokes holes in theories and bursts bubbles and says the things no one wants to hear. He's cynical, a pessimist and a skeptic, at a time when most people want to cling desperately to hope. "Shut up, Murphy," is the typical response he gets anytime he opens his mouth. Even when he has a point.

The thing is, he's a realist. He values logic, circumspection, self-sufficiency, and power. Life does not, in fact, give a single shit about ideology. When given only a selection of bad choices, he doesn't just stand there wishing for a good choice. And since he has never been able to rely on the loyalty of others, the best of all his shitty choices is the one that benefits him most, even at the expense of others. Why not steal from and lie to and betray those who have never seemed reluctant to turn on him? They've done their part to earn his resentment and duplicity.

There's a magic that happens, however, when Murphy is shown genuine kindness. He's wary of generosity, of course. He knows that no one gives anything without expecting something in return. But the people who show up for him are the people who eventually get close to his heart and earn something like fidelity. He will work to protect those people, even if they wouldn't approve of his methods.

Pragmatism is key. Murphy isn't ruthless for the sake of cruelty, not without good reason. He likes the taste of revenge as much as anyone else, but if he can't justify the risk in chasing it, he'd just as soon not have it. Self-preservation requires mercy more often than it requires brutality. Murphy is a cunning and adaptive young man who knows the value of employing deception or diplomacy over bloodshed. He doesn't have an ego to serve. All he wants to do is see tomorrow.

He's afraid to die. For all the reasons people usually are, but also because he's died before. His heart once stopped for several minutes and he believes he went to Hell, that someday he'll return there. That belief is not the result of some religious awakening. It's his guilt over the harm he's done, accumulating over the years, dragging him into the darkness. When others around him were exposed to a toxin that brought out their worst sides, Murphy was unaffected, because he's already his worst self. His near-death experience held the mirror up to his face, and he's still in the process of recoiling from what he's seen.

Murphy is, in his own deeply imperfect way, trying to do better. The problem is, he doesn't know who to be in times of peace. His self-worth disappears when he isn't fighting for his life, when he's left with his restlessness and his uselessness to organized society. These depressive episodes send him withdrawing into himself, frustrating the people who can see his potential so clearly, who want to help him rise to the occasion. But he doesn't know he has it in him to be a good person.

On the slightly taller side of average height and built like someone who's been living in a post-apocalyptic hellscape for years, Murphy isn't an obviously formidable enemy. His muscles are reasonably toned, but he isn't well-fed. In a lot of ways, he's reminiscent of a feral dog.

His features are a bit unusual, carved in a way that makes him look menacing even under the most tranquil circumstances. He has heavy-lidded blue eyes with long lashes, set beneath a perpetually angry pair of dark brows. His nose is sharp and prominent. His lips are inclined to either snarl or smirk. He doesn't shave regularly, which leaves him with stubble for days on end. His hair is nearly black, a fade cut with a spiky mess growing wild on top. His skin is a malnourished sort of pallid. His blood is black, not red, although this isn't obvious unless he's bleeding.

Like any sensible native of the apocalypse, Murphy favors clothing in dark neutrals, shades of black and grey with the occasional washed-out maroon or slate blue. He dresses practically, in whatever's available, often in many layers to protect him outdoors.

CONTENT WARNING
The 100 is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama revolving around a group of juvenile delinquents who are dropped from their space station as test subjects to determine whether the irradiated Earth can support life.

Common triggers include:
　⦿ death
　⦿ torture
　⦿ body horror
　⦿ medical horror
　⦿ violence
　⦿ abuse
　⦿ rape
　⦿ suicide
　⦿ self-harm
　⦿ mental illness
　⦿ substance abuse

Murphy is a villain whose loyalty and behavior shifts dramatically throughout the series. He's introduced as an unstable criminal who's violent and abusive toward his peers, eventually suffers an attempted lynching and banishment, and later retaliates with murder. He's frequently the victim of torture and spends a short interval as a sex slave. His trauma is unlikely to come up in conversation unless he's specifically asked, although the effects may be felt through the empathy bond or visited in dreams. He self-medicates with excessive alcohol use.

SKILLS
Though he wasn't the most attentive student, Murphy studied Earth Skills while in space and is adept at surviving in the wilderness. He is fluent in Trigedasleng, a post-apocalyptic pidgin descendant of American English that originated in the nations occupying the former state of Virginia.

He made his way as a thief and a grifter for several months, adept at stealth, deception, pick-pocketing, and robbery. Oddly enough, he's gifted at negotiation and parley. People may find him suspect in general, but he's good at figuring out what someone else needs and how he can trade it to get what he wants.

Murphy has decent combat skills, even if he's far from a soldier. He can work with crude explosives and trained for years in hand-to-hand martial arts, bladed weapons, and firearms.

He's also an amazing chef.

SCAPEGOAT
The unfortunate ability to be blamed for anything bad that happens in his presence, despite all the evidence that proves otherwise. Someone else could commit a murder in front of a crowd of witnesses and somehow everyone within ten feet of him - including the killer - would be convinced Murphy was to blame and should be punished for it, even if he himself didn't pull the trigger.

This power is activated subconsciously by Murphy's own assumption that the people around him will decide everything is his fault. The way others react to this sudden realization that Murphy is the cause of their troubles will vary based on each individual's personality. If they are inclined to believe such an attack would warrant a beating or an execution, they may attempt to beat or execute Murphy. In other cases, they might simply develop a quiet dislike for him or harbor a sense that he can't be trusted.

Eventually, Murphy will be able to activate his power intentionally and shift this absolute blame onto another target, but for now, everything is totally Murphy's fault and there's nothing he can do about it.