User blog:RuneKingThor1/Pure Evil Proposal: Nagash



I'm surprised there's a lack of Warhammer villains in the pure evil category. Let's start with Nagash the greatest and most evil necromancer of Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

What's the work?
Warhammer (sometimes called Warhammer Fantasy) was the name of a number of tabletop battle and roleplaying games marketed by UK firm Games Workshop. "Warhammer" was a tabletop battle game that began in 1983 and was previously known as Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WHFB), its last official edition (8th edition) was published in 2010. It was officially discontinued and replaced with the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar game universe by Games Workshop in July 2015, and all official GW support for Warhammer Fantasy Battle was discontinued, the same year when the videogame Total War Warhammer was released.

The Warhammer verse was closely based on our own, with continents laid out in a similar pattern, and the action was mostly located within "The Old World", roughly analogous to 16th century Europe. Other locations of note are Ulthuan, the island home of the High Elves, and "The New World", which has two continents, Naggaroth in the North, home to the Dark Elves, and southern Lustria, home to the Lizardmen. At the very North and South poles of the world were the Chaos Wastes, a nightmare realm from which the greatest evils of the world originated. In addition, the map of the Warhammer world included several locations not covered by the game, with such original names as Nippon and Cathay (Cathay is even protected by a "Great Bastion").

Standard fantasy elements were also present — Elves used to dominate but are a shadow of their former selves; Dwarfs occupy the few mountain strongholds that have not yet fallen to Skaven, Orcs and Goblins. The forces of Chaos are present, both in the form of great warbands of mutated and corrupted warriors with horned helmets and as cult activity in the heart of imperial society.

Warhammer is also characterized by an atmosphere of dark humor and horror, the Greenskins (orcs and goblins) are sociopathic manchildren living only to cause mayhem, pillage, antagonizing the Dwarves and fighting battles against strong enemies, and their violent behaviour is usually depicted as slapstick comedy rather than something horrible. The Dwarves are grudge obsessed sticks in the mud who once declared war on a elector count of the empire ecause the he hired Dwarf craftsmen from Karak Kadrin to build it, promising them twelve dozen wagonloads of gold as payment. He ended up underpaying — by two and a half pennies. What would be a simple accounting error to any reasonable person is a casus belli to the Dwarves. Bretonnia is a dark parody of King Arthur's britain where the peasants are dumb and always confined in poverty. The knights and aristocrats of Bretonnia are rich and snobbish jerks who frequently abuse the peasants and use them as monster bait and meat shields. And theres also that small issue for wizard students that they can't cast a single spell without running the risk of being turned into a crazy mutant with tentacles by Chaos. Basically if you were to put Elric of Melnibone, Berserk and Monty Python in a blender, you would get something similar to Warhammer Fantasy.

Who is he and what he has done?
Nagash the Undying, or simply Nagash, is the first necromancer of the Warhammer world and its most powerful lich warlord. Once a mortal priest from Nehenkara (a pastiche of ancient Egypt), Nagash became a lich, casting aside his flesh and humanity in favor of unmatched mastery over the arcane and eternal existence. His goal is to become a god and turn the world into a graveyard under his control. He has been one of the greatest threats the world ever faced and was only stopped at a great cost each time he rose, never being truly defeated and he continues to plague the heroes even in the Age of Sigmar universe.

The firstborn son of King Khetep of Khemri, Nagash coveted power and immortality right from the beginning. He first learned dark magic from a group of captured Dark Elves he was interrogating. As a reward for this knowledge, he had their leader blinded and her tongue and hands cut off, then buried alive, and the rest executed. When his brother was crowned King after his father’s death instead of him, he took power by entombing him alive. He ruled Khemri through fear and brutality, building a massive pyramid from slave labor. It took an alliance of Kings from other parts of Nehekhara to finally end his reign of terror. Later, he regained his power, and after failing to conquer all of Nehekhara, he decided that if he couldn’t rule it, no one could. He proceeded to wipe out the population by getting the Skaven to pollute its main water source and using his dark magic to cause death and decay across the land. If this wasn’t enough, he planned to resurrect the dead as his slaves, but his plans were thwarted when the Skaven, who feared his power, helped Alcadizaar slay him. Despite his apparent death, Nagash still lives due to his dark magic, and, feared by all who know of him, is arguably the greatest threat to the Old World in existence after the Chaos Hordes.

Freudian excuse
Feeling neglected by his father who treated his brother better and he has the flimsy idea that if everybody were undead wars and disorder will end. This doesn't justify the atrocities he committed to get as much power as he could and his petty acts of mutilation and torture.

Heinous Standards
Wanting to turn everyone into an undead slave, responsible for the existence of undead monsters in the Old World, cursed the people of Nehenkara with eternal undeath as the Tomb Kings, brutally killed his brother and the dark elves who taught him dark magic. Nagash sets the standard for evil liches and mummies in Warhammer.

Final verdict
A pretty easy keep if you ask me.