Nagash (Warhammer)

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For other uses of the name, see Nagash.

Nagash is a fictional character from Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting. His importance comes from his position as a great necromancer who caused the destruction of a civilisation and the creation of the Undead in the Warhammer setting. He is himself a liche able to command the undead.

1 Early life
2 The Great Necromancer
3 Nagash's return
4 Modern times
5 References
6 See also

[edit] Early life

Nagash, the Accursed One, was first and foremost among the priests of Khemri.Despite his high rank in the order of the mortuary priests, he coveted even greater power. After the death of his father, Khetep (first of the 3rd dynasty of rulers in great Nehekhara), Nagash's older brother, Thutep, took to the throne, becoming the ruler of all Nehekhara.

One night, as the clouds covered the sky, Nagash slew his own brother, entombing him with their father. The next morning, his hands still covered with the blood of his brother, Nagash claimed the throne of Nehekhara for himself. As there was none other to gainsay him, the unholy ascension was not openly contested.

Though Nagash was already a powerful priest, well versed in the magical embalming arts of Nehekar, it is said that Dark Elf captives proved most useful to him in learning even more powerful magicks--Dark Magic. Nagash drugged the Dark Elf sorceresses, and tortured them into revealing everything they knew about magic. He soon learned of the Chaos Gate in the far North and the Winds of Magic that blew from it, and how they may be harnessed by a careful practitioner. Unlike the sorceries of Khemri, which relied on the intercession of gods to manipulate magic for them, Nagash learned that a mortal, with inherent risk, could manipulate magic for their own ends. He then learned of Dark Magic and its conductors, of the substance called warpstone; and of the mystic properites of blood. Soon his lust for power allowed him to exceed the Dark Elves in power. Knowing he no longer had any need for them, Nagash defeated the elves in a magical duel, and reserved a cruel fate for the surviving sorceress. Nagash had her blinded, removed her tongue and hands, and placed a torque of pure obsidian around her head before burying her alive. With the elves' knowledge, Nagash became one of the few humans to master Dark Magic.

Nagash used his new knowledge as the basis for a new branch of magic which he called Necromancy. This magic greatly extended his lifespan and gave him the ability to reanimate the bodies of the dead. Nagash ruled Khemri with fear, and forced countless slaves to labour for fifty years to build the greatest pyramid in Khemri from Black stone, which would come to be known as the Black Pyramid of Nagash. In grotesque mockery Nagash penned all of his knowledge and findings within several tomes made of human flesh and flourished with human blood. These archaic works becam known as the Nine Books of Nagash. Many others in Khemri flocked to his promise of immortality and power. The most notable among these was Arkhan the Black, Nagash's chief lieutenant, as well as a third of the Priests of Khemri.

However, the other Kings of Khemri were aghast at the reign of terror which Nagash had begun. Enraged at the corruption he had brought and the culture of fear and terror, the other seven kings from the other, lesser, cities allied themselves in order to remove Nagash from his throne, and a powerful army was raised to march on the legions of Khemri. But Nagash was not to be so easily defeated. Using his twisted Necromancy, learned from daemons, he raised an army of the undead, a horde of skeletons to destroy the attacking armies. Such a thing was unheard of, and in the death obsessed culture of Nehekhara, it was recognized as the greatest of obscenities. Hundreds fled, terrified by the thoughts of battle versus the departed, however all was not lost. Although many did flee the sight of the dead army, Nagash was ultimately defeated; but was not slain. He fled to the northeast to plot his revenge against the lands of his birth in the Cursed Pit of Nagashizaar. It was generally decided at that time that all that Nagash had wrought during his accrused reign should be destroyed. Great fires consumed much of what Nagash had done and written--his precious Nine tomes were believed to be among the ashes, though a very few copies managed to escape the wreckage and flee to await the return of their master. That all of his tomes were not destroyed would eventually come back to haunt Khemri and the surrounding lands.

[edit] The Great Necromancer

During this time, wandering in the desert, it is thought that Nagash came to the very point of death - only to cheat it and emerge as a Liche, the very first and greatest of his kind. He came to Cripple Peak and discovered there a secret deposit of warpstone, known only to the Skaven. Here he built his fortress, a tower to inspire terror and awe the world over--Nagashizzar. Nagash learned how to manipulate the warpstone, and at Nagashizzar he forged many of his famed artifacts of power including his wretched sword Mortis. Prolonged exposure to the mutagenic warp stone twisted Nagash into a hideous monster, no longer recognisably human. It increased his size and his strength and left him little more than a walking skeleton himself.

Such a large amount of warpstone drew other creatures, namely Skaven, who fought massive war against Nagash for control of Cripple Peak. The Skaven armies were vast, but Nagash's magic was also massive as were his armies of undead. Nagash forged a truce with the Skaven though: he would give them warpstone if they would lure several orc tribes into the pits beneath his fortress. The Skaven agreed, wary of his plans.

For hundreds of years the kings continued to rule Nehekhara much as they had before. In Lahmia the reigning Queen Neferata came across a copy of one of the Books of Nagash. She was captivated by the dark lore contained within and, making a pact with Nagash, she took an elixir distilled from his own blood. The moment the elixir reached her lips, Neferata's fate was sealed. She had chosen damnation and exile--as had her predecessor and mentor, Nagash. Her heart stopped beating, and she became more than human while also becoming something less than human. She became the first true vampire. Nefereta gathered to her the eleven greatest minds and champions of Lahmia, and gave to them each a portion of this elixir. They were the Master Vampires, from whom all other vampires in the world are descended.

Fearful of the wrath of the Gods, the famed King Alcadizaar of Khemri gathered together all the armies of Nehekhara and waged war on the twisted queen. Despite the powerful magics and armies of Undead unleashed by the vampires, the threat of Lahmia was crushed by a huge army mustered by King Alcadizaar. The queen fled Lahmia with a retinue of the six remaining she had perverted into creatures of the night.

Those who fled were met by Nagash in the mountains of the north, and he embraced them as spawns of his own corrupt magic. These vampires became his captains. Nagash sent these undying warriors to make war with Nehekhara at the head of a mighty army of skeletons.

But Nagash had underestimated his former countrymen. Alcadizaar the Conqueror was the greatest general of his age (the 6th dynasty of Nehekhara) -- and some argue the greatest King to ever rule Khemri -- and led a unified army against the undead invaders. After many years of bloody war the hordes of Nagash were pushed back. As such the vampire masters decided to flee. with only W'soran remaining at Nagash's side eager for more necromantic lore. Nagash was furious and cursed all vampire kind to burn in the rays of the sun.

So bitter and evil was Nagash that he decided that if he was not allowed to rule all of Nehekhara then no-one could. He concluded that it was better to slay everything in Nehekhara than see it ruled by someone else. The first part of his plan was to get his Skaven allies to pollute the river Vitea, whose life-giving water the people depended upon. After he had tainted the river it became black and foul, and has since been renamed the River Mortis. Soon after the corruption of the Vitea Nagash began the second part of his foul plan and pestilence ravaged the lands of Nehekhara.

Alcadizaar was forced to watch as first those he loved died, including his wife and children and then watched his beloved kingdom crumble before him. When a new army of the undead invaded Nehekhara, the meek defences put up to stop the invasion were easily thwarted and Alcadizaar himself was captured by the fell beasts. He was not executed though. Instead he was thrown into a cell in Nagshizzar to be tortured.

It was now, with Alcadizaar imprisoned and Nehekhara on its knees that Nagash revealed the conclusion of his evil plans. He began to weave one of the most powerful spells ever to be attempted. At the pinnacle of his power Nagash unleashed a mighty wave of sorcerous energy which washed over the land for hundreds of miles, causing everything that was living to decay and die, and all that was dead to raise again. Nagash planned to use his necromantic powers to raise the entire population of Nehekhara as an unstoppable army, which he would use to conquer the entire world, and there is little doubt he would have succeded had a strange turn of events not taken place.

The Skaven, watching from afar, realised the threat posed by this latest development. And, eager for control of Nagash's large deposit of warpstone, they rushed into action a plan to destroy Nagash, for they realised they would be amongst the first to feel his wrath. A powerful blade was made out of pure warpstone, a blade so deadly and volatile that even the wielder would eventually succumb to the effects--the Fellblade. Infiltrating Nagashizzar, the hooded Skaven freed Alcadizaar from his captivity and gave him the blade.

Still weak from the power he had exerted casting his immensely powerful spell, Nagash was recovering when Alcadizaar stumbled into his throne room. Surprising Nagash in his moment of weakness, Alcadizaar cut off one of Nagash's hands. Stumbling back, Nagash unleashed deadly magics at Alcadizaar. Despite both being fatigued and weakened by their ordeals, the ensuing battle was titanic. The Council of Thirteen, watching the battle unfold, joined their magic powers together to protect Alcadizaar from Nagash's onslaught, even as they were slowly being killed by Nagash's power. But finally it was Alcadizaar who emerged victorious. Flying into a rage, Alcadizaar flew at Nagash and hacked away at him until Nagash was left in many small pieces. Looking out across the land at his destroyed people, Alcadizaar fell into despair, and took Nagash's crown and stumbled around his empty kingdom being driven mad by his ordeal and the warpstone blade of the Skaven. Eventually he died, and the artefacts were taken up by others. The Skaven took Nagash's bones and burnt them in fires of warpstone, scattering his ashes across the world, leaving only his hand--the dreaded Claw of Nagash as a grim reminder of the power that had once been Nagash.

[edit] Nagash's return

It was a side effect of Nagash's spell that the old, long dead kings of Nehekhara were brought back to life, and were tended to by the Priests who it seems had finally reached their prophesised immortality. Thus, ironicly through Nagash's attempt to destroy the lands of Nehekhara, he had given them a cruel mockery of life, creating the realms of the tomb kings.

Nagash did not stay dead. As a liche he was able to knit his body back together, piece by tiny piece, over a thousand years. The next time he rose, he found the lands of Nehekhara defended by jealous undead kings with armies of skeletons equal to anything he could muster. Nagash challenged the reigning king of Khemri, the first King Settra, to rule of Nehekhara. Settra, furious at what Nagash had done, chased him from Nehekhara. Returning to his fortress, Nagash found the Skaven had mined most of the warpstone away. Nevertheless, in one night, he drove all the Skaven from Cripple Peak. The Skaven made many attempts at regaining Cripple Peak, but having gained much of the warpstone, they decided that they had achieved their objective, and left Cripple Peak for good. Nagash, still weak from his death, realised he needed his old magical artefacts to reassert his power, including his stolen crown. So Nagash forged a new hand to replace his missing one out of a warpstone alloy. The crown had been taken north into the Badlands, where it fell into the hands of orcs who raided across the Black Mountains and Azhag the Slaughterer. They were brought to heel by the emerging Empire of Sigmar however. Nagash led a great army into the Empire to reclaim it but was defeated and slain by Sigmar at the Battle of the River Reik, having his skull smashed by Sigmar's mighty hammer Ghal Maraz.

According to Mannfred von Carstein, Nagash's defeat at the hands of Sigmar resulted in a curse laid upon all vampires: for their refusal to come to his aid, they would forever be weak against the power of Sigmar. It has long been claimed that sufficient faith in any deity would be of aid against vampires, but it appears that the Sigmarite faith now has additional potency against the undead.

[edit] Modern times

Nagash once again returned to life, 1,666 years after his death at the hands of Sigmar, in the night known as the Night of the Restless Dead.

Now, almost one thousand years later, it is thought he is again re-building his power. Though only a fraction of his former self, he is still one of the most powerful beings in existence, worshipped by some as the god of Necromancy. He knows he cannot be reckless again, so he bides his time until he can once more take on the world.

Its believed that he is currently enacting his will in the world through the manipulation of others, in particular Lichmaster Heinrich Kemmlar.

For more information on this subject, look at: tomb kings, Khemri or vampire counts