The Rise Of Nagash Pdf

[Marianna]

In that dread desert, beneath the moon's pale gaze, dead men walk. They haunt the shifting dunes of the breathless, windless night, brandish weapons of bronze in mocking challenge and bitter resentment of the life they no longer possess. And sometimes, in ghastly dry voices, like the rustling of sun-baked reeds, they whisper the one word they remember from life. The name of the one who cursed them to their existence, more than death but less than life. They whisper the name, Nagash..."

Nagash (pronounced "Na-GASH"[11a]), known by many names such as the "Great Necromancer," the "Great Betrayer," the "Usurper," the "Undying King,"[8b] the "Supreme Lord of Undeath" or simply "He Who Shall Not Be Named,"[7a] is an extremely powerful Liche who is the ultimate personification of death and the Undead, an ancient, evil being who sought to conquer this cruel, chaotic mortal world and bring about an age of Undeath that will rule for all eternity.[5a]

Nagash is darkness and unreasoning hatred given form, the father and creator of the foul art of necromancy and lord of all Vampires and other Undead. His every action and deed is self-serving, his achievement horrific and loathsome, and his every whim bent solely to ensure that no one shall ever deny nor challenge his right to rule over all the Known World ever again. This dark, evil, Undead being came close to ultimate domination, but if not for the sacrifice of the unsung hero Alcadizaar the Conqueror, this world would have been lost to him millennia ago.[5a]

Now, many generations later, his name has become little more than a shadowy legend, his dark whispers echoing eternally upon the Purple Wind of Magic, Shyish. Though he may be gone, death itself could never truly claim his soul, and for centuries after his demise, his eternally damned spirit has since recovered his power, whispering to the ears of all those that had served him, and those that soon will.[5a]

Always, he steered them towards his reawakening, his final apocalyptic rebirth upon the world. Nagash vowed to bide his time, not returning until his powers were regained in full, until he was ready to reign supreme against all life. He envisioned the mortal world filled with the silent, unthinking Undead, a realm where only his will and thoughts can think freely and without challenge.[5a]

However, the portents were troubled. The Dark Gods were moving, and Nagash realised that unless he returned to thwart them, Chaos would finally conquer all. This time the Great Necromancer was going to claim the power of death itself. He would choke all life from the world and rule eternally in the darkness that followed. This time, there will be nothing to stop him from reaching his ultimate destiny, and to those that try, they shall bow before the true god of the dead.[5a]

"Had I been secondborn, the people of Khemri would have served me gladly, and the city would have prospered. If you would blame anyone, blame those damned gods you so adore. It was they who made me no more than a first son. It was their will who ultimately sealed you inside that tomb."

As the first son of King Khetep of the 3rd Dynasty of the ancient Nehekharan city-state of Khemri, Nagash was destined to serve the Nehekharan Pantheon of gods as a priest of the Mortuary Cult whilst his younger brother, Thutep, ascended to rule Khemri as the new priest-king following their father's death. Nagash was an exceptionally gifted student, and due to his talents and royal heritage he quickly became one of Khemri's high priests, but this did not sate his unquenchable thirst for power over others. Filled with pride and greed, Nagash coveted the throne toone day be held by his brother and set into motion a plot to seize the crown of Khemri for himself. Nagash began to corrupt the religious incantations of the Mortuary Cult, and he gathered together a dozen like-minded acolytes, of which a cruel noble named Arkhan was the foremost.[2a]

One night, as the clouds covered the moon, Nagash murdered Thutep's bodyguard before entombing the young king alive within the Great Pyramid of their father. The next morning, blood still staining his hands, Nagash placed himself on the throne, and none dared confront him. The reign of Nagash was a time of terror for all the people of Nehekhara. The usurper king sought to increase his own power by means of devilish sorcery; a blasphemy that the people of Nehekhara felt certain would incur the wrath of the gods. Nagash had learned the art of Dark Magic from a cabal of shipwrecked Dark Elves, captured and imprisoned within his father's pyramid on the eve of his funeral. Nagash tortured the pale-skinned foreigners until they divulged the secrets of their mystical powers, and he proved to be an apt pupil indeed. After only a few years, Nagash had surpassed his tutors' powers, and he destroyed them in a deadly magical duel as they tried to escape.[2a]

"I have defied death and laid the gods low. I am the master of this land, and all that it contains. You look about you and see calamity, our small army in tatters, surrounded by our foes, but that is because your mind is weak, Arkhan the Black. You let the world bend you to its whims. That is the thinking of a mere mortal, I do not heed the voice of this world, Arkhan. Instead, I command it. I shape it to my will."

Nagash began to experiment with necromancy, combining his mastery of Dark Magic with his knowledge of death from the Mortuary Cult. He committed his findings into nine accursed tomes: the Books of Nagash, the most powerful sources of necromantic magic in the world. One of Nagash's chief successes was the creation of the cursed Elixir of Life. With it, Nagash had finally unlocked the secret of eternal youth. He allowed Arkhan, his trusted vizier, and his other principal lieutenants, to imbibe the elixir. It granted them immortality and incredible strength but, unable to recreate the potion themselves, they were little more than slaves to Nagash's sinister will.[2a]

To increase his power and maintain dominance over the land, Nagash ordered the building of a vast black pyramid. Whilst the populace of Khemri believed this to be just another burial tomb, it was in fact a structure that would channel and harness the Winds of Magic to Nagash's every whim. The pyramid became Nagash's obsession, and its construction quickly drained Khemri's resources, forcing the necromancer to wage war to capture building material and replenish his workforce. Nagash demanded great quantities of gold and slaves from other cities to be sent in tribute to Khemri. That which was not given freely was taken by force, and several cities were brutally conquered by Nagash.[2a]

Marble the colour of midnight was brought from afar, and innumerable slaves toiled day and night for fifty years until the Black Pyramid of Nagash towered above all other monuments in the whole of Nehekhara. Such was Nagash's arrogance that he had built for himself a tomb that dwarfed even the Great Pyramid of Settra. The broken corpses of countless slaves were built into its foundations, and mystic sigils of power were woven into the Black Pyramid's walls. Even in the baking desert sun, the pyramid was cold to the touch, and not even starlight reflected off its magic-saturated surface. Upon its completion, the Winds of Magic blew more strongly across Nehekhara, and Nagash's mastery of Dark Magic and necromancy increased ten-fold. However, the tribute exacted by Khemri was so great that the poverty-wracked cities of Nehekhara had begun to fall into ruin. Eventually, the other Priest Kings rallied against the tyranny of Khemri. They refused to submit to Nagash any longer, and they began to draw their plans against him.[2a]

"There will be no escape, no blessed oblivion. I can end your life as easily as I can extinguish a candle, and before your corpse is cold, I can reach out and grasp your soul. You will be my slave for all eternity, and I shall laugh at the depths of your pain. Such is the power of Nagash."

To face the defiant Priest Kings, Nagash used his infernal powers to raise a legion of Skeleton Warriors. This was the first time that the dead were made to walk at the will of another, and the horror of it caused many mortal soldiers to flee before the Undead armies. City after city fell before Nagash, and though the living warriors of Nehekhara fought bravely, every soldier who fell only served to swell the ranks of the Undead. Nagash believed it was only a matter of time before the Priest Kings relented and bent their knees in supplication once more, but his arrogance was to prove his undoing, for he underestimated both their resolve and pride.[2a]

After many long years, the remaining Priest Kings threw all their strengths and hopes into one final gambit, and the combined armies of seven kings marched upon Khemri. It was not only flesh and blood warriors who besieged Khemri, for beside the Priest Kings' armies strode towering statues. Faced with destruction by Nagash's sorcery, the Mortuary Cult had finally decided to take action and put their centuries of magical research into practice on the battlefield.[2a]

In a grand ritual, they summoned the spirits of ancient heroes from the Realm of Souls and bound them into the numerous statues that lined the passageways of the necropolises. The god-like Ushabti, towering Necrolith Colossi and powerful Khemrian Warsphinxes were awakened, ready to be directed to war. With creations such as these fighting at their side, the living warriors of Nehekhara were emboldened, and they crashed into the Undead legions with devastating force.[2a]

After a titanic battle, Nagash's forces were defeated by the combined might of the Army of the Seven Kings. Khemri was besieged, and then sacked. Nagash's immortal lieutenants, who had taken refuge in the cursed Black Pyramid, were dragged out of their sarcophagi into the sunlight one by one and were executed by the vengeful Priest Kings. However, Nagash managed to escape before the Priest Kings found his tomb thanks to the sacrifice of Arkhan, who stalled the attackers long enough for his master to flee. With a curse on his lips, Nagash vowed to turn the entire world into a kingdom of the dead, and travelled north to plot his revenge.[2a]

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