The Morlocks were outcasts and rebels against surface society who named themselves after subterranean creatures found in H. G. Wells's book, The Time Machine. They were founded by Callisto, who discovered the tunnels and moved into them decades ago, shortly after they were abandoned. She enlisted the aid of Caliban in finding other mutants to create a new underground society and maintained the tunnels until the Mutant Massacre. Masque would later lead a group of horribly mutated Morlocks against the X-Men.