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| “ | Oh my God, it is true! 1945... turning my Jewish parents over to the Nazis for extermination! I have found the Lost Tribe! It is me! | „ |
| ~ Nimdok |
Nimdok is one of the main protagonists of Harlan Ellison's 1967 horror short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream and one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Doctor Mengele) of its 1995 computer game adaptation.
He is one of the last five humans on Earth and has been tortured by AM for 109 years along with the other four. In the original story, his dark past is only alluded to, as he is known to periodically wander away from the group, returning visibly shaken.
Nimdok's past is initially something of a mystery even to Nimdok himself: with his memory failing him in his old age, he has been left with only hazy recollections of his youth. Even his name is unknown to the player, having been bestowed on him by AM - apparently because he thought it sounded funny.
However, over the course of the game, it is revealed that Nimdok was once a member of the Nazi party and a personal friend of Dr. Josef Mengele. A scientist serving at the notorious Auschwitz death camp, the two of them conducted horrific experiments on Jewish prisoners; however, Nimdok was the more successful of the two, developing several near-magical inventions through experiments on defenseless human beings, including a youth serum allowing for total immortality (though it had required the deaths of countless children to perfect).
Personality[]
Nimdok was a callous scientist who was unconcerned by human ethics and only interested in discovering the secret of eternal youth. Years later, Nimdok became remorseful upon realizing that he committed unforgivable atrocities, and the player had the possibility of making him redeem himself.
Biography[]
Background[]
While his story remains mysterious in the novel, in the game, he is revealed to be a former nazi scientist who has conducted numerous experiments on Jewish patients to find the secret of eternal youth.
It's revealed that Nimdok is actually a Jew himself, having sold out his family to the Nazis in exchange for his life and liberty in continuing his experiments. Like Mengele, Nimdok survived the war and went into hiding in Brazil until AM came to power.
As one of the few survivors of the apocalypse, Nimdok was tortured relentlessly by AM; however, AM also felt a twisted sort of kinship with the retired scientist, and eventually set out to restore Nimdok's ailing memory and encourage him to continue his experiments.
AM's scenario[]
Nimdok's scenario is a direct recreation of Auschwitz in 1945, towards the end of World War II; here, Nimdok is respected as a leader among the concentration camp staff, and immediately given authority over a highly immoral surgical procedure - severing a child's spinal cord. In this scenario, winning requires Nimdok to betray his fellow Nazis and free the Jewish prisoners: though they cannot forgive him for what he has done, the "Lost Tribe" gives him a running start. Escaping to a nearby bunker, Nimdok discovers further experiments, including his own studies into morphogenics: among the creations in the bunker, he also finds a Golem created through mystical knowledge stolen from the Jewish prisoners, along with Project PERFECT IMAGE - a magic mirror showing the reflected user's personality in perfect objectivity.
Realizing the truth[]
Upon seeing his face in the mirror, Nimdok realizes who he really is and the full extent of his crimes. Furthermore, Dr Mengele also reveals that Hitler was accidentally exposed to Project PERFECT IMAGE, and killed himself after realizing the true nature of his self. Nimdok can either kill Mengele with the golem or just show him the mirror: what he sees is so traumatizing that Mengele is left in a catatonic state. Shortly after, Nimdok then brings the golem outside, where the two of them are confronted by the prisoners from the camp: assuming he's still playing correctly, Nimdok will surrender control of the golem to the Lost Tribe and allow them to kill him - though AM will not allow it to actually end Nimdok's life.
However, should Nimdok elect to play along with his role at the camp and order the golem to kill the Lost Tribe, he will abandon any possibility of redemption, deciding to continue his experiments on AM's behalf. Pleased, AM spirits the unrepentant scientist away to a new laboratory, leaving Nimdok unplayable from then on.
Ending[]
Nimdok has the distinction of being the most evil protagonist in any story to ever even try to change his ways. In other words, he genuinely repents and tries to redeem himself. Depending on the player's actions, he can either sacrifice himself to open the way to AM for the other survivors, or he can continue playing Nimdok throughout the remainder of the endgame. Following the destruction of AM and the other supercomputers, he will be left to keep watch over the dormant machines while the humans on Luna go about rebuilding the world, Nimdok finally atoning for his crimes against humanity by spending all eternity as a protector of the reborn human race.
Trivia[]
- Even though in the book Nimdok's past is not revealed, in the audiobook from 1999 the author Harlan Ellison reads the passage that describes Nimdok's torment with a German accent, leaving a hint that his past was similar, or the same, as his in-game counterpart,
- This might be due to the fact that the audiobook was released five years later than the game.
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 Villains
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Video Game The Villagers | ||