Nagash, the First Necromancer, is a major character in the events of both Warhammer and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar settings, going from mortal man to god of undeath throughout the events of both settings. His actions caused the destruction of the ancient civilisation of Nehekhara and the creation of the undead as a true power in the Warhammer World.
Appearance[]
In life, Nagash was a tall muscular man with nut brown skin. He was commonly seen wearing a wide open sleeved robe and, rather than the garb worn by the mortuary priests of Nehekhara, the attire of a warrior-prince, specifically a white linen kilt and a broad leather belt inlaid with rubies and gold scarabs. His eyes were black, being described as being "the colour of polished onyx" and his beard was kept narrow with strips of hammered gold through it. His scalp was kept shaven and oiled.
Following multiple deaths and resurrections, Nagash took on an immortal lich form, a form that would persist into the Mortal Realms when he ascended to godhood as Incarnate of Shyish. In this form, he is a towering skeletal figure, taller than he was in life, wearing blackened armour and ghastly "robes" formed of the bones of the fallen. He is constantly surrounded by a swirling vortex of souls, some of which are manipulated to carry the tomes known as the Nine Books of Nagash.
Personality[]
Nagash is arrogant and ambitious, both in life and undeath. His desire for power led to him murdering his own brother and nephew, enslaving his brother's wife through a magical ritual and ultimately severing the link between the people and gods of Nehekhara. He is a patient man, a trait that his immortal form has since brought into greater prominence. However, despite having all the time in the world in the most literal sense, he still has a breaking point, and refuses to tolerate any attempt to hinder his ambitions. Nagash has also shown himself to be a master strategist, nearly succeeding in conquering the entirety of Nehekhara during life and using his undead legions to force his claim on the souls of all dead in the Mortal Realms, despite the other gods of order's best attempts to renege on this agreement.
History[]
Early Life[]
The firstborn son of King Khetep of Khemri, Nagash was born in the year -2000 IC. When he was old enough to fight, he accompanied his father in a war against the Lizardmen, taking command of the army when his father fell ill. This period lasted six months and ended with Nagash leading them to victory. When Khetep recovered, he gave the newly created fortress-city of Rasetra to one of his generals and returned home, forbidding anyone to speak of Nagash's brief rule. Khetep sent Nagash to join the Nehekharan Mortuary Cult, where he quickly rose to prominence, becoming the youngest Grand Hierophant in history by the age of 32. Like his fellow Mortuary Priests, Nagash's duties involved searching for a means of achieving immortality, but his ambitious nature made sure that he coveted greater power than that of a high priest.
As a Mortuary Priest, Nagash was trained in the magical embalming arts of Nehekhara, but it would be a group of Druchii captives that would lead him to succeeding in his quest for immortality. One of these captives was a sorceress, and she grudgingly revealed some of her magical knowledge to the Grand Hierophant during her captivity. From her, Nagash learned of the Chaos Gate in the far north and the Winds of Magic, and from this knowledge, how to manipulate magic without the intercession of gods, unlike the Khemrian sorceries. He learnt how to harness a victim's pain to power spells under the Dark Elf's tutelage, developing a branch of dark magic that had, until this moment, remained unknown to humanity. The sorceress and her companions made multiple escape attempts over the years of captivity and, after learning all he needed from them and gaining enough power through his own necromantic experiments, Nagash confronted them. Though wounded in the resulting magical duel, Nagash would succeed in overwhelming them, killing all three.
King of Khemri[]
After the death of King Khetep, the throne fell to Nagash's younger brother Thutep. In response, Nagash began plotting in secret to take absolute power for himself. He would, in this time, recruit several co-conspirators, some of which would go on to become his commanders, and commit ritual sacrifices using kidnapped citizens in experiments to create what would come to be known as the Elixir of Life, a mystical elixir that granted immortality to those who drank it. Thutep would outmaneuver him, using one of his wife's handmaids as bait to draw out the kidnappers and confronting them inside their lair, Khetep's pyramid. However, Thutep would fail to bring Nagash to justice, and was buried alive in his father's tomb whilst his brother took the throne for himself, declaring himself High Priest and King of Khemri.
As king, one of Nagash's first act was to forbid his sister-in-law, Queen Neferem, from taking her life and joining her husband, as tradition dictated, instead demanding she marry him. Neferem refused, remaining a prisoner in her brother-in-law's palace for nine years. To ensure she remained a prisoner instead of trying to escape, Nagash took her son Sukhet as his ward, using his nephew's life as leverage over his brother's queen. During this nine-year period, Nagash would begin construction on the Black Pyramid of Nagash and would reveal his intentions to unite all of Nehekhara under his rule, conquering the city of Zandri, sacking it over the course of three days. The people were massacred and enslaved, and King Nekumet was sent back to his home, dressed in rags and on the back of a flea-bitten mule. On the eve of this battle, Nagash finally perfected his Elixir of Life, which he gave to his most trusted commanders, binding them to his will.
In -1950, nine years after Nagash's ascension, King Lamasheptra of Lahmia visited Khemri, intending to see his aunt, Queen Neferem. Between the reverence Lamasheptra showed her and the constant demands of caring for Sukhet, Nagash committed an act he, at the time, didn't know the full ramifications of. He murdered Sukhet, using the boy's blood to create another dose of the Elixir of Life, which he offered to Neferem, promising her "not to harm Sukhet from this moment forward." Nagash's words, specifically the phrase "drink this, and life as you know it will end," convinced Neferem that she was drinking poison and, encouraged by his warnings, gladly took the elixir. Whilst she, unlike those loyal to Nagash, retained her free will, this act perverted the covenant between the people and Gods of Khemri, stripping the Mortuary Priests of their gods-given power and forcing them to rely on their own souls to power their magic.
In response to this act, the priests of Khemri were the first to declare rebellion, with Nagash's long-time servant Khefru leading four of their number into the Black Pyramid to murder Nagash in his sleep. Drilling a hole into the lid of his coffin, the priests poured oil into the coffin, before setting it alight. Nagash was unable to escape before the fire was lit, but upon breaking free, he slaughtered Khefru and the priests, reanimating a corpse for the first time during the fight. He then returned to the palace, slaughtering the priests gathered there with the help of his immortals, before casting a spell which slew every single priest in Nehekhara not protected by stone. This massacre was the catalyst for the other kings of Nehekhara to rise up in open rebellion against Nagash's rule.
Nehekharan Rebellion[]
The first king to rise up against Nagash was King Akhmen-hotep of Ka-Sabar. The Bronze Host of Ka-Sabar met Nagash's army, a horrific force of emaciated men and reanimated corpses, in battle at the Oasis of Zedri. To make matters worse, all who fell were resurrected to serve in Nagash's undead horde. Still, with the blessings of their god Geheb and the aid of the Bhagar tribesmen, the Bronze Host was almost victorious. Only when Nagash and his immortals were threatened directly did the necromancer-king retaliate, unleashing a plague of black locusts which forced Akhmen-hotep to retreat.
Elsewhere, the kings of Rasetra and Lybaras formed an alliance, backed by the high priesthood of Mahrak. Marching through the Valley of Kings, the combined army achieved the first real victory against Nagash, defeating the loyalists of Quatar and occupying the city, arresting Quatar's king. This positioned their armies in such a place where they posed a direct threat to Khemri. Nagash, upon returning to his capital, summoned his allies in Zandri and Numas, who pleaded that they didn't have enough time to raise an army against Rasetra and Lybaras. Nagash promised to buy them the time they needed and, drawing upon the death energies of a massacre his vizier Arkhan committed against the Bhagar tribesmen, summoned up a rain of blood to fall upon Quatar. This rain spread a plague throughout the city, reducing it to a depopulated ruin and forcing the kings of Rasetra and Lybaras to retreat and rebuild their armies.
After an interlude during which both sides rebuilt their armies, the war resumed. At the suggestion of the Mahrak priesthood, the Bronze Host struck at the trading town of Bel Aliad, defeating its army in the field. However, this victory turned to disaster when the desert tribesmen butchered the undefended populace of Bel Aliad in an act of vengeance for the massacre previously enacted against them. This only served to grant Arkhan a new undead army with which to drive his master's enemies into retreat. Forced to re-cross the desert on dwindling rations and constantly harried by Arkhan's horsemen, the Bronze Host was ultimately destroyed by treachery, Akhmen-hotep being murdered by his brother Memnet who, having lost all hope, had secretly sided with Nagash.
In the east, the armies of Rasetra and Lybaras marched on Khemri, defeating Nagash's vanguard in a pitched battle on the trade road, but they were cut off from the Springs of Eternal Life by the necromancer's main host. Forced to retreat when both its kings were badly wounded, the allied army made a grueling march back to Quatar. Nagash sent Arkhan to take the city ahead of the retreating rebels, but the allied army managed to catch him unprepared, escaping the worst of the trap and slipping around Quatar. They then made a fighting retreat back down the Valley of Kings to Mahrak, whilst Nagash tortured Arkhan for his failure.
The final battle occurred at Mahrak. Nagash besieged the city for a decade without conquering it. Until now, Lahmia had remained uncommitted throughout the war, but with Nagash's victory at hand, prince Lamashizzar led the army of Lahmia to join the necromancer. However, unbeknownst the Nagash, Arkhan had turned against his master and convinced Lamashizzar to betray Nagash, something that the armies of Numas and Zandri had also contemplated. In the final battle, Nagash, finally having learnt the truth of the covenant with the gods, sent Queen Neferem out first, using his perversion of the covenant to overpower and destroy the wards protecting Mahrak. However, this was not enough and, with all his allies betraying him save his own undead, Nagash was finally defeated, being mortally wounded by primitive firearms brought to Lahmia by distant Cathay to the east.
Though defeated, Nagash wasn't dead, and his essence fled back to the Black Pyramid, which was soon also besieged by his enemies. When they opened the lid of his tomb, a swarm of beetles flew out. None realised at the time that this swarm was Nagash, and, though his mind and body were broken, the necromancer escaped into the wastelands north-east of Nehekhara. Seemingly victorious, the surviving kings of Nehekhara decided that all Nagash had wrought during his reign should be destroyed. Whilst they were unable to destroy the Black Pyramid, they had all his followers put to the sword and burnt all he'd done and written. It was assumed the Nine Tomes were among the ashes, but in truth, they were stolen by Lamashizzar, who used Arkhan to lead him to the tomes, before betraying and capturing the immortal. This act would eventually come back to haunt Nehekhara, though not for many years.
The Necromancer's Empire[]
During this time, wandering the wastes and haunted by the spirits of his foes, Nagash came to the very edge of death, only to cheat it by pure chance. He encountered a Skaven patrol carrying warpstone, and the solidfied Chaos transformed him into a Liche, greater in power than any of his kind. With this newfound power, he was able to continue on, coming upon Cripple Peak. He lived alone here as a hermit for some time, but after he discovered a deposit of abn-i-khat (Nehekharan - "Burning Stone", Nagash's name for warpstone), Nagash changed his plans.
Within the mountain, he built the fortress-city of Nagashizzar, and waged war on the local tribes, using their barrows to raise a new army. Eventually, he was successful, conquering the entire race and, in the process, creating the first ghouls. Nagash leanrned how to manipulate the warpstone, using it to forge many of his famed artifacts, including the sword Mortis, the Crown of Sorcery and his Black Armour. However, prolonged exposure to the mutagenic warpstone twisted Nagash into a hideous monster, no longer resembling the man he once was. It increased his size and strength, but left him a walking skeleton wreathed in spirits and flames.
Warpstone is a major part of skaven culture, and with such a large deposit buried underneath Nagashizzar, this led the skaven to declare war upon Nagash. Hordes of ratmen met hordes of the undead, backed by Nagash's magic, until after years of war leading into a bitter stalemate, Nagash offered the skaven a truce. In exchange for ore and slaves, he would give them warpstone. Though the skaven were wary of the "dead-thing," their greed for warpstone won out and they agreed to the truce.
Meanwhile, in Nehekhara, the kings continued to rule as they had before, though Nagash's influence was still felt. In Lahmia, Lamashizzar's sister Neferata usurped her brother with the help of Arkhan, recreating Nagash's Elixir of Life for herself and her closest allies. When Lamashizzar retaliated by poisoning Neferata with sphinx venom, the venom in her blood, the elixir and Arkhan's necromantic magics merged to bring her back as the first vampire. Arkhan slew Lamashizzar in revenge, dying minutes late at the hands of the king's guards.
Many years later, Lahmia would rise to prominence as the most powerful city in Nehekhara under Neferata's secret control. She would adopt Prince Alcadizzar of Rasetra, who had received elixir made from her own blood whilst in the womb, into her secret blood cult, with plans to use him to form a new Nehekharan empire. However, Alcadizzar would learn the truth and flee into hiding amongst the desert tribes, until he united all the kings of Nehekhara against Lahmia with proof that vampires ruled the city. Neferata and her allies were driven into exile, whilst the city was destroyed.
Some of the vampires who fled made their way to the mountains in the north, where they would encounter Nagash and be embraced as spawns of his corrupt magic. These vampires would become his captains, and would be sent back to Nehekhara at the head of an army of skeletons to make war with the kings. Alcadizzar, now King Alcadizzar the Conqueror of Khemri, was the greatest general of his age, and under his leadership, the armies of Nehekhara were able to defeat the undead hordes. Leading a unified army, he would outmaneuver the resurrected Arkhan and the vampire W'soran to trap them in the Valley of Kings, where they would be crushed.
Nagash, however, responded to this defeat with petty spite. 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 another. The first part of his plan was to get his skaven allies to pollute the River Vitae, whose life-giving waters Nehekhara's people depended upon. After he had tainted it, the river turned black and foul, a corruption that would persist until the End Times and would lead to the river being renamed the River Mortis. With this first phase completed, pestilence ravaged the lands, claiming thousands, including the wife and sons of Alcadizzar. When Nagash's army returned, there were barely any left to oppose it, and Alcadizzar was captured and thrown into a cell in Nagashizzar.
With his rival imprisoned and his old homeland on its knees, Nagash began the second and final phase of his evil plan. He began to weave one of the most powerful spells ever to be attempted, using the tortured Alcadizzar as the fulcrum. At the pinnacle of his power Nagash unleashed a wave of sorcerous energy which washed over the land for hundreds of miles, causing everything that was living to die and all that was dead to rise again. Nagash planned to use his necromantic powers to raise an unstoppable army of the undead, formed from the entire population of Nehekhara, with which he would conquer the world. It is likely he would've succeeded, had it not been for a turn of events he did not foresee.
Skaven culture is built upon backstabbing and, seeing that the necromancer was threatening them too with this latest scheme (and still eager for control of Cripple Peak's warpstone), they planned out the assassination of Nagash. Rather than risk their own lives, they instead crafted a blade of pure warpstone - the Fellblade - who's corrupting influence would slay both the wielder and his enemies. Several hooded skaven agents then broke into Nagashizzar, freeing Alcadizzar and gifting him the blade, before departing without a word or backward glance.
Still weak from the power exerted in casting his spell, Nagash was recovering when Alcadizzar stumbled into his throne room. Surprising the necromancer in his moment of weakness, Alcadizzar cut off one of Nagash's hands, then bisected him, placing the fear of death in Nagash for the first time in centuries. Nagash seized Alcadizzar by the throat, and almost succeeded in throttling him, but with the last of his strength, Alcadizzar cut off first one of Nagash's arms, then his head, slaying the Great Necromancer.
Looking out across the accursed land of his destroyed people, Alcadizzar fell into despair. Taking Nagash's crown, he stumbled around his ruined kingdom, both his ordeal and the warpstone blade driving him further into madness. Eventually he died, and the artifacts were stolen by others: the skaven recovered the Fellblade, whilst the crown fell into the hands of a human shaman by the name of Kadon. The skaven gathered every piece of Nagash's body, burning them in fires of warpstone and scattering his ashes across the world. However, his severed hand - the Claw of Nagash - escape the blaze, a mistake that would allow the necromancer to eventually return.
Return[]
One of the effects of Nagash's spell was the resurrection of the ancient kings of Nehekhara. Without Nagash's will to command them, however, they were able to retain their free will, creating the realms of the Tomb Kings. The Tomb Kings would be kept alive through a different form of necromancy, tied to the powers of the Liche Priests of the Mortuary Cult, who, ironically, through Nagash's attempt to destroy the lands of Nehekhara had achieved the immortality they'd always strived for.
Using the powers of his Black Pyramid, Nagash was able to bring himself back to life. This process of knitting his body back together too 1,111 years and, once it was over, Nagash found himself in a land ruled over by many jealous undead kings who's combined armies of skeletons could equal anything he could muster. Nagash challenged the reigning king of Khemri, King Settra I, also known as Settra the Imperishable, for rule over Nehekhara. Settra and the other kings, furious at what Nagash had done and no longer fearing the undead hordes or skeletal monstrosity that they faced, instead opted to hunt down Nagash, chasing him from Nehekhara.
Returning to Nagashizzar, he found the skaven had mined most of the warpstone away. Nevertheless, in one night, Nagash drove all skaven from Cripple Peak. The skaven made attempts at regaining Cripple Peak, but would be defeated by a resurrected Arkhan the Black, who would once again join his master, and would decide that they'd gathered enough of the warpstone, abandoning Cripple Peak for good.
Still weak from his death, Nagash realised he needed to retrieve his old magical artefacts to reassert his power, including his stolen crown. After forging a new hand out of warpstone alloy, he began this search. Kadon, the human shaman who had discovered the crown on Alcadizzar's corpse, had taken it north into the Badlands, founding the civilisation of Mourkain, a grim, death-worshipping kingdom, under its influence. Mourkain's existence attracted several powerful vampires, including Neferata, W'soran and Ushoran, but would fall to an orc invasion and reduced to ruins.
The crown would reemerge in the lands of what would come to be the Empire, where it was taken by the necromancer Morath. Morath would be slain by the king of the Unberogen tribe, Sigmar Heldenhammer. Sigmar would take the crown for himself, unaware of its dark powers, and under its influence, would become gaunt and harsh, turning on his own allies until his friend Wolfgart knocked it from his head, restoring Sigmar's mind. Enraged that his attempt to use Sigmar as a puppet through which to seize control of the Empire had failed, Nagash would lead a mighty host into the nascent Empire to reclaim his crown, but was defeated and once again slain at the Battle of the River Reik, his skull crushed under Ghal-Maraz, the hammer of Sigmar.
According to the vampire Mannfred von Carstein, this defeat would result in a curse upon all vampires: for their refusal to come to his aid, they would be forever weak against the powers of Sigmar. It is unknown if this is true or not, as sufficient faith in any deity has always been claimed to be a weapon against vampires, but it does appear that Sigmarite beliefs bare additional potency against the undead.
In 2515, two and a half millennia after the formation of the Empire, the orc warlord Azhag the Slaughterer was killed in combat with Seneschal Kessler of the Knights Panther. His crown, which gave him sorcerous powers as well as nightmarish visions and insights uncommon for an orc, was in actual fact the crown of Nagash, and was taken to the city of Altdorf, capital of the Empire and sealed in the Imperial Vaults.
Nagash would return again, 1,666 years after his death at the hands of Sigmar, in what would come to be known as the Night of the Restless Dead. Afterwards, he would begin enacting his will through the manipulation of others, particularly Mannfred von Carstein, who had come into posession of a Khemrian talisman that had once belonged to Nagash, and the Lichmaster Heinrich Kemmler.
End Times[]
Nagash would return at his full power in 2524 through an unholy alliance of Arkhan the Black and Mannfred von Carstein. However, the ritual of resurrection required nine sacrifices of holy blood. One of their sacrifices, Aliathra the Everchild, was believed to be the daughter of Finubar, Phoenix King of the High Elves, but was in reality the daughter of Prince Tyrion. This meant that, not only was her blood not holy, as it didn't contain Asuryan's blessing, but it was also suffered Aenarion's Curse. This weakened Nagash for a time, but he was quick to bind the Wind of Death to his will, becoming the avatar of Shyish.
Nagash needed servants, such as his Nine Dark Lords from ages past. To fulfill this role, he chooses his Mortarchs, these being Arkhan the Black, Neferata, Krell, Vlad and Mannfred von Carstein, Luthor and Walach Harkon, Dieter Helsnicht and someone known only as the Nameless. With his new armies prepared for battle, Nagash would march south, intent on claiming his Black Pyramid and purging the curse that had taken root there. During the End Times, Nagash and his forces would fight both with and against the Empire and their allies, ultimately prioritising the forces of Chaos over the former as his enemies. However, it would not be enough, and the World-That-Was would fall.
Age of Myth[]
Despite the destruction of the World-That-Was, many survived in one form or another. One of these survivors was the resurrected Sigmar Heldenhammer, who was found by the celestial dragon Dracothion. Upon awakening, Sigmar journeyed through the Eight Realms, uniting the various tribes of primitive mortals that were what remained of the survivors of the End Times. These people began to worship him as a god, and would quickly begin rebuilding civilisation. He also found and rescued others who had ascended to godhood, who would then join him as part of the new Sigmarite Pantheon. One of these gods was Nagash, taking his place as God of Death.
Nagash imposed order on the spirits of the dead, whilst his deadwalkers, the shambling corpses of those slain across the realms, helped build defenses for the cities of order. He would claim all of the realm of Shyish and it's underworld as his own. This self-proclamation of rulership meant that, at least in his own eyes, the laws of order dictated that the souls of every mortal creature that died belonged to him.
However, he knew the other gods would renege on this deal eventually, a feeling that was justified by the actions of the other gods. The aelven gods and demigods protected the souls of aelfs from both Slaanesh and Nagash, Alarielle and her Lamentiri kept the souls of the Sylvaneth, and the Sigmar was stealing souls to make his Stormcast Eternals. To combat these schemes, Nagash used his peerless sorcerous power to find the largest deposits of Realmstone in Shyish, sending Arkhan with untold legions of skeletons to sift through the sands for it and bring it in lines to Nagashizzar, the center of the realm. This sand would be converted into Shadeglass, a crystalline substance that is harder than obsidian and steel, which would be used to construct a new Black Pyramid, greater than the original Black Pyramid of Khemri in the World-That-Was, and the great cyclopean edifices of Nagashizzar that encircled it. The purpose of these buildings was to attract enough arcane power that Nagash could use it to claim the entirety of Shyish for himself and, by extension, conquer all life.
Age of Chaos[]
The Age of Chaos began when Sigmar's pantheon fell to infighting and betrayal, and Nagash was one of the major figures in this collapse. During this time, the forces of Chaos would reappear for the first time since the World-That-Was was destroyed in the End Times. Nagash was involved in three major conflicts during this time - the Nexus Wars, the War of Heaven and the Underworlds, and the Wars of the Dead.
The Nexus Wars were the first notable example of Nagash's betrayal, as it appears that Nagash switched sides during this conflict, allowing the forces of Chaos to take the Shyish Arcway.
The War of Heaven and the Underworlds began with Sigmar's invasion of the Realm of Shyish in retaliation for Nagash's actions during the War for the Allpoints. The Chaos champion Archaon the Everchosen, now a minor Chaos god himself, launched two separate attacks, the War for the Allpoints against the Amethyst Princedoms that ruled the Allpoints, and the War of Bones against Nagash's realm. Both Nagash and Sigmar saw the other's actions as a betrayal, with Sigmar failing to support Nagash during the War of Bones and Nagash sending only a token force to defend the Allpoints, leading to the destruction of the Amethyst Princedoms. This betrayal would reach boiling point when Nagash recalled his forces, weakening the forces of Order across all the realms. Their alliance broken and yearning for revenge, Sigmar abandoned his God-King aspect to take up the crown of the barbarian war god he once was, invading Shyish and slaughtering his way through Nagash's lieutenants. Though he would eventually be forced to retreat to his own realm of Azyr, such was the effect of Sigmar's rampage that Nagash was forced into hiding, leaving Shyish to join the Allpoints, now renamed the Eightpoints, as a bastion of Chaos in the Mortal Realms.
The Wars of the Dead refers to the wars fought following Sigmar's retreat from Shyish, as Nagash struggled to remain dominant over the realm of Shyish against Archaon renewed War of Bones. This would come to a final failure during the Battle of the Black Skies, where Nagash was once again slain and his forces driven back. The god of death would've experienced his final death that day, had it not been for a fierce counterattack by his Mortarchs, who managed to reclaim his body and retreat to the lost underworld of Stygxx. Nagashizzar itself was razed to the ground, leaving nothing but a blasted crater radiating dark power.