Characters / Warhammer: Nagash

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Nagash, the Great Necromancer

The Supreme Lord of Undeath.

"The dead do not squabble as this land's rulers do. The dead do not fight one another. The dead have no desires, no petty jealousies or ambitions. A world of the dead is a world at peace..."

The creator of Necromancy and one of the most powerful magic users to ever walk the world. He is responsible for the destruction of the ancient civilization of Nehekhara and the creation of the undead.

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# — E

• 0% Approval Rating: Nagash was said to be an inadequate and terrible ruler for Nehekhara, choosing to invest his land's budget and resources on monuments that subscribe to him, as well as spending a good amount of it on war against enemies, at the expense of Nehekhara's population struggling with debt, a scarcity of food and water, and an utter lack of trust towards their leader, considering many had died trying to work for Nagash's ridiculously grandiose expectations. It eventually got to a point where the populace decided that enough was enough and went on to dethrone Nagash from Nehekhara's throne.
• Abusive Precursors: The origin of the Tomb Kings and the Vampire Counts can be traced back to Nagash and his odyssey to obtain immortality and dominate the world. While both factions are unscrupulous, only the vampires are usually actually evil. Nagash was a depraved, sociopathic man who thought nothing of others. His form of immortality is the basis of the Tomb Kings, who now curse their predicament and his attempt at youthful immortality is what bought forth vampires who, while mostly content in terrorizing others, had their taste and their ability to see their reflection and cross running water taken away as well as them becoming deathly vulnerable to sunlight because they failed an objective Nagash ordered them to fulfil. All these contributed to Nagash becoming just as incredibly disliked by the undead as by the living.
• The Ace: Nagash was an exceptionally talented mage, well-educated for his age and time, and a very skilled warrior who led a many campaigns to victories. These make him one of the most capable and formidable individuals in the setting, and it's part of the reason for how he was able to persevere for so long. That said, while his rule in Nehekhara was absolutely abysmal, it had less to do with him being a weak leader and more to do with the fact that he intended to carve more power and immortality through whatever means necessary, even if it cost him Nehekhara's population.
• Age Without Youth: While Nagash was successful in achieving immortality, something which Settra failed to accomplish before he died, he quickly realized that this had nothing to do with preserving one's physical appearance, causing him to naturally age throughout his life. This made Nagash decide to explore an additional method of gaining immortality, which would lead to the creation of the vampires.
• Ambition Is Evil: Nagash is the poster child for this trope in Warhammer Fantasy, being all but unmatched in both the scale of his ambition and the depth of his evil.
• Animate Dead: Par for the course of being a necromancer, in fact, the inventor of necromancy, Nagash's sorcery allows him to magically scour remains of the dead, uplift them from the ground and reanimate them, bound to his will. His mastery of this skill is such that he is able to create immense armies of the living dead.
• Arch-Enemy: Nagash ends up becoming the most personal nemesis of King Alcadizaar the Conqueror during the last days of Nehekhara, which is furthered by just how much the two contrast and parallel with one another, with Nagash making sure that their enmity becomes more personal over time. Millenia later, Nagash would also serve as one to Settra the Imperishable as Nagash is the main culprit for why everything Settra built and dedicated his life to is now nothing but tattered ruins and has sworn to make Nagash pay. Inversely, Nagash actually respects Settra to a degree, one of the very few beings that he expresses this thought towards.
• The Archmage: He's a contender for the most powerful sorcerer in the game, being matched only by the First and Second Spawning Slann. However, he is undeniably the greatest Necromancer of all times, and the most powerful human wizard to ever live. His End Times profile classes him as a natural Level 5 Wizard (despite the rules stating that this is forbidden) and he can generate up to nine spells from the Lores of Death, Undeath, Vampires, Light and Nehekhara.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Nagash was the creator of the undead and their current leader/god. He literally ate a god to gain divinity and is one of the most powerful models in the game (being the only level 5 wizard and having a special rule that gives him a boost to the spells he cast).
• Ax-Crazy: Though it may not appear to be apparent at first, many of Nagash's actions and characteristics are a reminder that he is a massively deranged and psychotic man who delights in killing and making others suffer for nothing more than his own amusement. His endless streak of depravity and misery have made him one of the most bloodthirsty individuals in the setting.
• Back from the Brink: In his war with the Skaven, both sides were at the point of total exhaustion when they negotiated a ceasefire. Within a few years the Skaven were only partially recovered and only a remnant in the region while Nagash had rebuilt his forces to many times their previous height of power and had crafted the magic items that made him orders of magnitude more powerful than he had ever been.
• Back from the Dead: Nagash has died many times but always manages to find a way back. The first two times he did so under his own power.
• Badass Bookworm: Nagash wrote nine books of dark magic and necromancy, collectively called the Nine Books of Nagash and they're arguably his most cherished artifacts by those pursuing power through Necromancy.
• Bad Boss: Nagash sees all of his servants as expendable and holds no regard for them unless their destruction directly affects his well-being or his plans, and even then some are just more useful than others. The exceptions are Arkhan and Krell; both died many times in his service, but he always brought them back.
• Black Magic: The power of necromancy is derived from the dark, ominous magical spells used by Dark Elves. Nagash learned black magic from a trio of Dark Elf stowaways and later would practice and experiment on his newfound power until he had managed to not just master it, but also create a derivative form of it that would come to become influential for the next thousands of years; necromancy.
• Blasphemous Boast: He makes this proclamation to Arkhan during a conversation...
  Nagash: "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."
• Blue Blood: Nagash was the firstborn son of Nehekhara's High King. However, in Nehekharan culture the firstborn son of the king is given to the gods (the temple) to become a priest and the second born becomes king. In the first book, Nagash lampshades and despises this variation from most cultures.
• Buried Alive: He ends up killing Thutep that way, by magically restraining him and then throwing him into a tomb before Nagash gave him one last, spiteful taunt and then entombed him underneath.
• Cain and Abel: His brother Thutep was the Abel while Nagash is one of the most horrific examples of a Cain in fiction; walling Thutep up in his own future tomb to die is one of Nagash's lesser crimes and sins.
• Civil War: Once his rule became far too unpopular and hated, much of Nehekhara's populace decided to strike back against Nagash and his government, initiating a conflict between two opposing sides, with Nagash representing Nehekhara's monarchy. He lost and was eventually driven to exile.
• Cool Sword: Nagash wields a weapon called Zefet-Nebtar, the Mortis Blade. In game its attacks are resolved at +1 Strength (as if he needed that) and confers the Multiple Wounds (D3) rule.
• The Corruptor:
  • Being a high-ranking figure in the Mortuary Cult, Nagash used his sharp mind and wits to convince the other members of the Cult that he was a better fit to lead than Thutep and to join his leadership, which they did, among them being Arkhan, whom would later go on to become his most favoured lieutenant.
  • In death, he has become even better at this, to the point of almost becoming The Corruption itself. Parts of Nagash's soul are contained in every single one of his artifacts, spurring those who use them to ever greater acts of evil in his service.
• Crown of Power: He once wielded the Crown of Sorcery. Although more ancient then Nagash, it was stated that his influence on the crown had grown to such that other wearers would be visited by thoughts of the Undying's. In addition, the crown allows wearers to cast any necromantic spell possible, be it a sorcerer or not.
• Curse: It comes in the territory of being a practitioner of Black Magic. This trope is also used as a way to show Nagash's superiority over the undead. For example, vampires were initially not susceptible to their stereotypical weaknesses in popular media in the Warhammer World, that is until Nagash cursed them to have exactly those after failing an objective of his.
• Dark Is Evil: Nagash in life was a practitioner of Black Magic that came from the Dark Elves, quickly mastered it, and used as a basis to create the art of Necromancy. Contrasting with the rest of the Tomb Kings who share a similar, bleak-colored appearance, Nagash is rotten and depraved to his core.
• Deader than Dead: His enemies made a very solid attempt at this. Nagash's second death was being decapitated and chopped up with a magic sword so deadly that it killed its wielder. Then the Skaven dismembered the body, burned it with Hellfire, took the ashes to various places around the world to scatter towards the wind... and he still came back.
• Death World: Nehekhara is an example of one due to its lack of life and sustenance and a plethora of savage reanimated skeletons lurking around. All of this ties back to Nagash, who decided to kill off Nehekhara's populace and corrupt its lands because he lost a fight against them and, in addition to not being able to return to his homeland, he berated his followers and forced the Skaven to collaborate into poisoning Nehekhara's water supplies.
• Dem Bones: Thanks to his obsessive dabbling in Necromancy and the damage and toll it took on his physical body, Nagash's looks went increasingly more crumbled and malnourished until he was nothing but a reanimated skeleton, forming the basis of the Tomb Kings.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: Nagash, above all else, desires ultimate power and authority and will stop at nothing in reaching those heights. If it suits him, he will sacrifice everything up to his own loyal followers and his kingdom if it means getting what he wants and he couldn't care less about the consequences. His thirst for power and immortality compromising over the needs of Nehekhara's population and finances were a major factor in why the nation began to decay and Nehekhara's people hated him for it.
• Determinator: As demonstrated by his ambition, Nagash was not one to back away from his desires and ambition. He kept on fighting and opposing his enemies until he got what he wanted. He died in exile from hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, yet managed to will himself back and continue on forth with his goals. He's a very villainous example, though it's also Deconstructed later on when his drive for ambition is so great that he refuses to admit defeat.
• The Dreaded: Nagash is feared by nearly everyone and everything in the Warhammer world that knows of him. The living in Nehekhara and Araby refuse to say his name even two thousand years after he died. The only time in their history the Skaven ever united and worked with other races was to take him down, and when they failed the entire Skaven empire now go out of their way to avoid him and his fortress.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Arkhan muses to himself that Nagash did not forbid romance or love among the undead under his command as he had little understanding of it himself unless it was to manipulate others.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Settra who, while not exactly a hero, is seen as one during his time in Nehekhara. Both are two of the kingdom's most famous leaders who were well-known for their power, authority, ambition, and their drive to achieve immortality. However, Settra legitimately cared about his nation's well-being, worked his way to be beloved and respected by his people, paid tribute to the gods whom he worshipped, and by the time he died, he was said to have been the greatest leader Nehekhara ever had. In contrast, Nagash only cared about his own desires, killed anyone whom he felt was an obstacle to the throne, planned to usurp his culture's gods, and was eventually exiled from his nation due to Nagash being a terrible ruler who didn't care about the populace. Unsurprisingly, by the present, Settra and Nagash are each other's Arch-Enemy.
  • To Alcadizzar; both are arguably the most influential leaders of Nehekhara, barring Settra. However, Alcadizaar cared about his people, worked hard to unify Nehekhara, and eventually gave his life to stop Nagash from destroying the world. Nagash, by contrast, saw everyone as a means to an end, destroyed Nehekhara's population and ecology out of spite, and died due to a combination of disgrace and treachery by the Skaven.
  • To Sigmar. Both he and Nagash came from renowned, if mostly humble backgrounds who worked their way up to become legendary in their own right, led massive military fronts and a kingdom, and would eventually become a god at a later point in time. Even so, Sigmar is everything Nagash is not; a benevolent ruler who loved his people, made numerous contributions and sacrifices to ensure that The Empire would thrive, earned his followers' respect, and eventually went down as one of the greatest heroes of the Warhammer World. Nagash, on the other hand, disregarded and eventually killed his own nation, only worked to fulfil his own desires, and his numerous attempts to kill all of living life and populate it with the undead left him one of the most feared and reviled figures in his world. These differences are furthered when Nagash and Sigmar do encounter and fight against each other.
• Evil Genius: He was very intelligent for his time and is seen as one of the most knowledgeable individuals of his world. To boot, Nagash was a good enough leader to convince others into his cause and he was well-versed and educated in politics, religion, and magic, to such an extent where he not only mastered the Black Magic the Dark Elves had taught him, but even went on to create his own brand of magic and create an elixir that would grant immortality, something which the High Priests tried (and failed) to accomplish for thousands of years.
• Evil Is Bigger: Later on, Nagash's practice on the undead begins to mutate his body to drastic levels. One such example of this is the fact that his height and bulk began to increase to the point where his head ornaments was bigger than a human's.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: During the End Times, Arkhan works to resurrect Nagash because he believes that he has no choice; Mannfred works with him because he believes he can control the Great Necromancer's power for his own ends. No points for guessing who's right.
• Evil Is Petty: Very much so. There's a moment in Nagash the Sorcerer, back when he was human, where he hits a servant simply because he's in a bad mood.
• Evil Overlord: He becomes one to Nehekhara after killing his family. Interestingly, Nagash is an example of one towards a kingdom that, while harsh and vicious, is neutral by alignment, which further reflects on how he was seen in disdain by the kingdom's populace. He's a standard version once he becomes the ruler of the undead whose evil is unparalleled towards everyone save the Chaos Gods.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His voice is often described as such.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: Nagashizzar, the literal translation of the name is "Glory of Nagash". His fortress consists of an entire mountain and the mines underneath, making his evil fortress the size of a city!
• Evil Sorcerer: The evil wizard of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, having been the inventor of necromancy (which vampirism is derived from), and having attempted to eradicate all life in Nehekhara to make it into its own empire of undeath (he succeeded at the "kill everyone and raise them from the dead" part, not the "bind them my will" one) and to fuel his ambitions of godhood.
• Evil Uncle: It doesn't get much more evil than brutally murdering your own nephew to get him out of the way and then using his corpse as an ingredient in a potion to turn the poor kid's mom into an agony-ridden undead slave.
• Eviler than Thou: Pulled this on a group of Dark Elf Sorcerers, and seems to think of himself as this to the Chaos gods. He also once inflicted this on Mannfred without having to fight against him. Mannfred was dead-set on challenging Nagash so that he could overcome The Undying's reputation, but is then horrified and pacified upon seeing what Nagash's power really felt like.
• Evil Versus Evil: His battle against the Skaven. In The End Times, Nagash veers between Villain Protagonist and Nominal Hero as he fights both the Skaven and the forces of Chaos, but only because they're in his way.
• Evil Virtues: While in no way redeeming, Nagash displays extraordinary Ambition, Determination, and Diligence, as he spent decades to centuries learning and perfecting his sorcerous knowledge and working towards his goals.
• Exact Words: Nagash is quite adept at this. In Nagash the Sorcerer he promises his wife that if she drinks the potion he's holding, no harm will come to her son from that moment on, but only because Nagash had already killed him, consumed his soul and used his blood to make the aforementioned potion.

F — N

• Fatal Flaw: His own arrogance and hubris. Nagash is very sure of himself and, despite possessing great power and influence that he could back himself on, is incredibly haughty and prematurely tries to assume that he's won against his enemies. Incidentally, these occasions have left him blindsided to being suddenly struck, defeated, and killed. And yet, somehow, Nagash never really seems to learn that his arrogance is the main cause of his downfall and deaths in his previous life. Then again, he's a sociopath, so it's unlikely that he would be wanting to learn from his mistakes.
• Fate Worse than Death: The most common fate of Nagash's enemies since he's an immortal evil tyrant with the power to kill and resurrect people as undead on a whim.
• Foil:
  • To Queen Neferata; both were vicious monarchs who did whatever they could to advance their goals and both coveted immortality as a way to permanently assert power and authority, which how the two ended up being acquainted with one another. However, Neferata greatly cared about Lahmia and many of her actions, including converting herself into a vampire was done so that she could better protect her home. Nagash, on the other hand, was perfectly content with letting Khemri and the rest of Nehekhara dying off if it meant spiting his enemies and advancing his own goals.
  • To Vlad von Carstein; Both were immensely feared undead leaders who originated from Nehekhara and proved themselves to be among the biggest enemies mortals have gone up against, as well as the fact that both had the endgoal of converting everyone into Undead. However, Nagash wanted to dominate everything to his will and personally cannot connect with anybody whereas Vlad felt that he was doing the world a favour by starving the Chaos Gods without any emotion to feed as the undead were immune to Chaos's influences, and was more than capable of reciprocating deep emotions like respect and love.
  • To Malekith; both were members of a thriving, prosperous race, were born into royalty, were considered combat and magical prodigies during their younger years, and went on to rebel against their former allegiances just to claim a royal title that they felt entitled to having, which led to them becoming exiled and sworn enemies against Ulthuan and Nehekhara respectively. However, while both attracted a strong following, Malekith had genuine attachments, such as a close friend in Snorri Whitebeard, a wife whom he loved, greatly admired his father Aenarion and aspired to carry on his legacy, and while his relationship with his mother, Morathi, is very complicated, they're still willing to cooperate against mutual foes. By contrast, Nagash was incapable of forming close attachments, only interested in what killed his father rather than grieving for his death and killing the rest of his family without remorse solely to take over Nehekhara's throne and where Malekith desires to still conquer Ulthuan, Nagash had already destroyed its foundation and population. Finally, Malekith rules Naggaroth, a continent known for its cold and naturally uninhabitable environment whereas Nagash lived and dwelled in Nehekhara, which was known for its hot, arid atmosphere and whose uninhabitable environment was entirely because of Nagash's machinations.
  • To Archaon; they both hold a legitimate claim to being the most feared being in the Warhammer World and they both want to destroy the world. They have differing reasons; Nagash wants to assert ultimate control and authority over the world by converting everyone into undead husks of their former selves, forever bound to Nagash's will. Archaon, on the other hand, is a nihilistic misanthrope who, despite being the Everchosen, hates the Chaos Gods and his position, and wants to kill everyone because he's convinced that life is meaningless, to such as extent that he doesn't mind dying himself, so long as the Chaos Gods perish alongside him as well.
• For Want Of A Nail: Possibly the most significant example in the Warhammer setting. If Nagash had never received the captive Dark Elves as tributes or just decided to kill them when he got them, instead of getting them to teach him the basics of Dark Magic, he may never have created Necromancy, meaning the undead wouldn't exist in the Warhammer world and Nehekhara would not have fallen.
• Forced to Watch: A big fan of this, forcing the captured King Alcadizaar to watch him kill all of Nehekhara and raise them as undead minions in his Great Ritual.
• Genocide from the Inside: The once-prince of Nehekhara is the reason there are no more living Nehekharans.
• A God Am I: He considers himself a god and has a cult that worships him.
• God of Evil: He ends up becoming this after devouring the Nehekharan God of Death, Usirian. Upon doing that, he razed his birth country of Khemri to the ground in retaliation for Settra's refusal. Unlike the Chaos Gods, who could be considered misunderstood on a good day, Nagash has proven that he has nary a shred of morality or goodness in his undead bones since his mortal days (even before he became undead).
• Godhood Seeker: His ultimate ambition is to become a god, or at least as close to one as to make no difference. Having invented necromancy and became a powerful liche to prolong his life infinitely, his Evil Plan is to slaughter the entire world and raise the dead as his loyal puppets, thus starving Chaos of worship and leaving him as the only supreme being around.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In life, it was jealousy towards Thutep over the throne and his wife. In undeath this became literal, as Warpstone and dark magic made his eyes balls of green balefire.
• Hated by All: While 0% Approval Rating is in effect for his reign in Nehekhara, Nagash also achieves this for the other nations of the Warhammer World as well as those who got to know him personally. Most vampires despise Nagash for the curse that he gave them that proved detrimental to their everyday life, the Skaven outright fear him, The Empire regard him as a grave threat and several other nations outright refuse to speak his name out. It's a testament to just how reviled Nagash is to the Warhammer world.
• Hate Sink: Nagash is the very personification of moral vileness and depravity shown in humanity and every single act of action done by him is either only to further his own agendas or done for the sake of hurting others. If anything, he's even more despicable than the Dark Elves, Skaven, and the Forces of Chaos as he isn't even bound to being either a part of an inherently evil race or having to serve a higher power and being forced to commit acts of evil. This is also the case In-Universe, where the populace of Nehekhara despise him for his role in political corruption and for once nearly driving the population into poverty and even the Undead are aware of Nagash's evilness, and most of them, want nothing to do with him.
• Horrifying the Horror: The Skaven are infamous for being Dirty Cowards who would take advantage of anything, but they would remain motivated enough to continue on fighting against their enemies if need be. And even when they decided to work with him out of personal convenience, Nagash proved to be so terrifying that the Skaven, in an incredibly uncharacteristic act, decided to enlist the help of Alcadizaar to bring him down. Nagash was so feared and such a threat to the world that the biggest backstabbing race in the setting decided to seek an alliance with someone of another race to end Nagash.
  • He also casts this down upon Mannfred von Carstein. The vampire initially dismissed Nagash as an exaggerated legend and wanted to challenge him in combat to prove his own superiority. He ends up terrified by Nagash through just witnessing his size, power, and authority, to the point where Mannfred gave up opposing him.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: While Nagash is best known as a lich/Tomb King, it should be noted that he was once a human being, just like any undead when they were born. However, Nagash was evil and vile since birth and all of his horrific actions and consequences were a result him being willing to contribute to such. His depravity outmatches every single individual being, including the Skaven and the Dark Elves and his influence and legacy can be felt with all sorts of ruins left in Nehekhara as well as the undead, who have proven themselves to be enduring adversaries for many.
• Humanoid Abomination: A rare case of a person making themselves this through (mostly) their own power.
• If I Can't Have You…: Nagash made multiple attempts to take over Nehekhara after he was exiled. After one too many defeats and becoming increasingly frustrated with Alcadizaar alongside his forces failing him, Nagash decided that if he is unable to take back Nehekhara, then he will destroy it, culminating with him ordering the Skaven to poison the nation's water supplies, killing everyone and rendering Nehekhara a lifeless, barren wasteland.
• Immortal Genius: Has been undead for thousands of years and come back from the dead at least three times. He's also the greatest necromancer in existence, having created the art of necromancy in the first place and studied for centuries on end to elevate himself to his current nightmarish level of existence, and is easily one of the most powerful and learned sorcerers in the entire setting.
• Immortality Immorality: Like Settra, Nagash desired immortality as a means to keep himself active as Nehekhara's ruler forever. He was ultimately successful, albeit whilst dabbling into the arts of Black Magic that he learned from the Dark Elves. And prior to his immortality, Nagash was a sadistic sociopath with ambitions of grandeur and domination. His immortality eventually transitioned his goal from conquer to destruction.
• Immortality Seeker: One of his main ambitions in life was to find a way to become immortal and succeed in where Settra had failed. His quest for such led to Nagash making countless catastrophic actions for his people and towards other races and nations and his success in acheiving said goal only made things worse for others in the future.
• It's All About Me: Nagash sees everything as a means to end for himself, and has made it obvious from time-to-time that any allegiance or connections he are just tools for him to use and manipulate unless they either fail him, or have their usefulness expired. He truly cares about nobody except for himself and is completely shameless about it. While one would argue about Arkhan being his closest confidant, that's more to do with Nagash's curse binding him into servitude, despite Arkhan being willing to work for him.

• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: When in private, Nagash makes absolutely no pretensions in just how much of an asshole he is, being someone who liked to pride himself above others, seeing his family in disdain simply because of his position to inherently be a priest, and his rampant sadism that he likes to showcase in moments of victory or spite. Additionally, he once made a promise to his sister-in-law that no harm will come to her son (his nephew) when they marry. As noted in Exact Words, Nagash already killed her son and used his blood to create an elixir to entice her into his bidding. He also pretends to be welcoming towards his lieutenants, especially Arkhan, but that is only because they're useful pawns for his own means and Nagash couldn't personally give a damn about them. While he always beings Arkhan back to (un)life in case he's killed, it's only because of being his best lieutenant than any genuine camaraderie.
• Joker Immunity: Nagash has been killed three times in the past, (first by the combined armies of Nehekhara and inconvenient sunlight, the second time by the last mortal king of Nehekhara at the cusp of Nagash's ultimate victory, and the third time by Sigmar Heldenhammer during an invasion of the fledgling Empire) and every time he manages to come back to terrorize the mortal realm. He is already seen exerting a bit of influence over Azhag, and it's safe to assume that one of the first things Arkhan would do should he be victorious is resurrect Nagash.
• Kick the Dog: He does this almost constantly. A few stand out examples include taunting his brother Thutep about how he plans to steal his wife before walling him up in a tomb to die, killing and consuming the souls of his surviving generals after they successfully performed a dangerous task for him and tricking his human followers into eating their dead so they would devolve into Ghouls by claiming it was the reward he promised simply because he'd gotten sick of them asking him to keep his promise.
• Kill the God: Entered the Nehekharan realm of the dead then beat down the god of death Usirian and consumed him. He also plans to do this to the Chaos Gods but they prove to be beyond him.
• Lack of Empathy: Even as a human Nagash had an astonishing lack of empathy, one example of this being how he murdered his brother. He also gleefully has his followers fight among themselves so he can see who's stronger, bankrupted Nehekhara to build the Black Pyramid and then destroyed his people for spite and personal gain.
• Large and in Charge: One of his many physical changes included becoming fifteen feet tall when he ascended to Physical God status, securing for good his status as master of all undead.
• Light Is Not Good: The Lore of Light is one of the many spell lores he has access to. Also, he's pure evil.
• King in the Mountain: Nagash's main base of operations is in a mountain/citadel known as Nagashizaar, and along with being the creator of necromancer and the undead, he's known by many titles, such as The Undyig and The Great Necromancer, mainly by his subordinates.
• Magic Knight: Not only he's an absurdly strong wizard, he's an absolute death machine in close combat. Even dedicated combat monsters and special characters are likely to die against him.
• Magic Staff: Alakanash, the Staff of Power, allows Nagash to store power dice for later use and moreover, he can use the magic to fuel his killing blows. He can thus spend said stored dice to confer the Heroic Killing Blow to his attacks.
• The Man Behind the Man: He is this to many of the most powerful practitioners of Necromancy, such as Kemmler and Mannfred.
• Murder in the Family: In addition to his brother, Nagash killed his sister-in-law and his nephew, solely just to get a sick kick out of spiting Thutep as well as making sure that his reign in Nehekhara is secured.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Part of the reason Nagash had his brother Thutep murdered was that he wanted Thutep's wife.
• Narcissist: He's an overt narcissist and a malignant narcissist rolled into one horrendously evil being. Nagash has a very high opinion of himself and thinks he's better than everyone else, alongside claiming that his depravity is greater than that of the Chaos Gods. He's also manipulative and often feigns alliances so that he could plan to backstab and usurp them at a later time, all without a shred of remorse and feeling elated on doing the deed.
• Mystical Plague: Nagash used his powers to create a poisonous substance for the Skaven to use in his ploy to devastate Nehekhara and make it uninhabitable. He succeeded, not only killing his nation's populace, but also making sure that the living never manages to prosper there either.
• The Necrocracy: Nagash's ultimate plan for the Warhammer World is to kill every single living being in the world and then resurrect them all into undead without any free will for him to lord over. Summed up in the following quote: "For Nagash intended to turn the entire world into a kingdom of death, where no action would be taken except when he willed it."
• Necromancer: The creator of Necromancy in this setting and, of course, its most powerful practitioner. He's practically invented every necromancy known to man, has created devices and magical artifacts of world-threatening power. It isn't for nothing that his End Times rule make him a Level 5 Wizard that can generate spells from all four Lores related to the Wind of Death (and the Lore of Light too).
• Nepharious Pharaoh: And how! When it comes to fictional pharaohs, he's right up there with Nyarlathotep in terms of sheer evil.
• Never My Fault: Nagash has a nasty habit of having to throw blames towards others, calling them incompetent and punishing them for failures that mainly happened because of his own arrogance and hubris. Beyond that, Nagash also refuses to accept that his jealousy and rage was the problem with him not being Nehekhara's ruler, but it's because of the gods.
  Nagash: "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."
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Nagash is suspiciously similar to the real life pharaoh Akhenaten. Both were son who were passed over but ultimately ended up as ruler, upended the state religion, and ordered a massive construction project in support of the new one. Also, the pharaohs of Egypt attempted to erase all traces of Akhenaten and his new religion, even going so far as to only refer to him in historical records as "the enemy", which is almost exactly what the Priest Kings of Nehekara did once Nagash was defeated.

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• Off with His Head!: How he was offed in his second life, courtesy of Alcadizaar possessing a sword made of Warpstone. Though it may have killed Alcadizaar and Nagash would come back years later, his death by a material made of Warpstone would ensure that each resurrection would make him weaker than his previous lifetime.
• Oh, Crap!: He was initially more confused as to how Alcadizaar got out of his cell and into his throne room, but that quickly turned to panic when he lost one of his hands to the Fellblade, realising he was too weak to put up much of a fight against a man who wanted him dead more than anything, armed with a weapon that could kill him.
• One-Man Army: In the lore and the game. He has the power to summon his own army of undead, to the point that a game could be played just using him and his summoning power. One scenario in the Nagash expansion has him alone on one side and an entire Tomb Kings army led by Settra on the other, and in the White Dwarf battle report, Nagash won.
• Omnicidal Maniac: His ultimate goal is to kill every other living thing in the world and, in so doing, starve the beings of Chaos to death, leaving behind nothing but himself and legions of mindless puppets to watch over a dead world forever.
• Orcus on His Throne: He has been back from the dead and gathering his forces for centuries, but hasn't really done anything beyond manipulating a few relatively minor forces behind the scenes.
• Our Liches Are Different: Having become undead through a combination of great magical power and Heroic Willpower when his body died in the desert. By his looks he is clearly a liche (though constant exposure to Green Rocks has made him over 9 feet tall) and behaves as such but doesn't seem to have a Soul Jar. Even so, even cutting him up with Infinity +1 Sword and burning the remains to ash failed to kill him for good.
• Physical God: Nothing short of this can describe what Nagash becomes after consuming Usirian, although he was already very powerful as Incarnate of Death. Besides his Leadership 10, Nagash's profile has Mouvement, Initiative and Attack 6 while his Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness and Wounds stats are all 7s, elevating him on par with the some of the most powerful creatures in the world, even above Greater Daemons.
• Predecessor Villain: He serves as this to the Vampire Counts, given that their entire race only really exists because of Nagash's actions in trying to overcome mortality and become immortal, which led to him creating an elixir that turned any drinker into a vampire. It also ties in that many of the first vampires initially followed Nagash, that is until he cursed them.
• Pyramid Power: During his rule, Nagash ordered the construction of a black pyramid that was scheduled to be even larger than Settra's Great Pyramid. On first basis, it was seen as a way for Nagash to flaunt on his authority and influence given its size, but the pyramid's true intent was that it was to be built with Warpstone, which meant that the black pyramid was to be a conduit for Nagash's necromantic powers.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: His exile from Nehekhara rendered Nagash with barely any comrades left from his side. He decided to strike back by furthering his experimentations on necromancy, creating a new races with the vampires and striking back against Nehekhara with a new army that he himself built.
• Resurrection Sickness: Every time he is killed, he ends up in a spirit realm where the ghosts of everyone he has killed will come to torment him for a thousand years. When he eventually comes back he'll be slightly weaker. This was retconned to be because of the Fellblade, the enchantments were so deadly that each time Nagash came back, he was weaker than before.
• Resurrective Immortality: He died on several occasions, but in addition to having come back through willpower the first time, Nagash made sure to have his powers strengthen to the extent that on the occasion he dies again, we would be able to return to the living at some point. It works, but it comes in two disadvantages; his resurrection takes many years, hundreds and even thousands, for him to return, and because of the Warpstone sword that Alcadizaar used to kill him, Nagash ends up being ravaged and punished by the many souls he killed, resulting in him being weaker than his past lives, though still very strong by every being's standards.
• Retcon: Before the 8th edition, the background stated that Nagash had been resurrected in 1681, 1666 years after being destroyed by Sigmar. In the eighth edition, that changed this, along side many other retcons.
• Sadist: Big Time. One of Nagash's preferred habits in his spare time is to torture, mock, and demoralize whomever he comes for the sake of entertaining himself. Best shown with his final moments with Thutep where upon he initiates his younger brother's entombment, Nagash made sure to spell out just what he was going to do with his family and kingdom with utter glee whilst Thutep tried in vain to escape his older brother's clutches.
• Scary Black Man: Nagash in life, and according to official art, looked like any ordinary citizen of Nehekhara, dark-skinned, sharp-featured, and generally well-built. Unlike his home society, he was a very, very evil man. Though his ties and use in necromancy significantly altered his appearance, rotting his skin and muscle away and exposing his animated skeletal remains.
• Shadow Archetype: Nagash is a dark reflection of what Settra, Alcadizaar, and Sigmar could have been if they were evil and wanted their own desires at the expense of others.
  • For Settra, Nagash represents what the former would have been if he didn't really care about Nehekhara and if his desire for immortality was to the extent that he was willing to learn from dark external factors. While both are defined by their hubris and arrogance, Nagash shows what Settra could have been as a malignant narcissist.
  • For Alcadizaar, Nagash is a display of what the former could have become had, instead of trying to unify Nehekhara into a civilized, prosperous state and was celebrated as a commendable leader who knew what sacrifices had to be made as well as representing his people, he was instead a power-hungry madman who couldn't care about anyone and binding others into his services as his way to maintain control.
  • For Sigmar, Nagash would be considered a greater contrast to him than the previous two. Both eventually came into power through their own hard work and leadership, and would eventually become legendary figures of history and become a god later on. However, Nagash is what Sigmar could have been if he had decided to disregard his own loyalty, love for his people, and defending his home over wanting to lord over others and forcibly demand loyalty as well as being willing to destroy his own kingdom out of spite and disregard everyone as tools for his own ends.
• Sickly Green Glow: Given his ties to the Winds of Magic, Nagash sometimes emits a green hue of energy whenever he is in combat or is performing necromancy. It ties into the physical nature of his body becoming malnourished and decayed by the overuse of his powers.
• Smug Snake: One consistent flaw Nagash has is the fact that he can be really full of himself to the point where hubris and arrogance can get the best of him at times. In fact, Nagash has lost and died in several occasions, despite being close to victory because he didn't bother to keep his arrogance in check.
• Smug Super: Nagash is incredibly haughty and arrogant, but whenever he likes to proclaim about his power, influence, and authority, he's not wrong about the fact that he is the world's greatest necromancer and one of the best mages in existence. While many in the undead are aware of Nagash's arrogance and express dismay towards it, they are aware that he exerts too much power over them to really consider going against him head-on.
• The Sociopath: Nagash is a full checklist of the traits;
  • A grandiose sense of self-worth (Nagash usurped the throne from Thutep because he thought he was weak, wanted to turn the entire world into a kingdom of the mindless dead under his rule and planned to overthrow and replace the Chaos Gods.)
  • A need for stimulation and sadism (He indulged his sadistic tendencies when he could and stole his brother's wife the morning after he murdered him)
  • Skill at manipulating people (he was able to set himself up as a god to the mountain tribes in what became Nagashizzar and gather people to rebel against his brother)
  • An inability to emotionally connect with anyone besides himself (he cared more about the power of Dark Magic than his father's death from it, killed his own brother, his nephew, and then enslaved and killed his sister-in-law)
• Sorcerous Overlord: The supreme lord and master of the undead, whether they like it or not.
• Sore Loser: Nagash does not take defeat and losing well and often goes on a maniacal tangent whenever he receives the short end of the stick. In fact, he was so bitter about the Vampire Counts failing an objective for him that he decided to punish them by cursing the entire race to be vulnerable to sunlight and taking away a lot of basic life pleasantries. And when he lost against Alcadizaar, he decided to poison Nehekhara's river supplies and kill off its entire population, refusing to admit defeat.
• Soul Jar: In his quest to avoid death, Nagash bound fragments of his soul into various objects so that he would always be tied to the world of the living. His Black Pyramid in Khemri, the hand severed by Alcadizaar and his Crown of Sorcery are the items most commonly listed as containing parts the Great Necromancer's soul.
• Spell Book: Nagash is the author of the most infamous spellbooks of Warhammer, the Nine Books of Nagash, containing records of his studies and seeping with death magic as well, making them powerful talismans too. Nagash gathers his nine books, which allows him to generate eight different spells from the Lores of Death, Undeath, Vampires, Nehehkara and Light as well as knowing always Ryze — the Grave Call.
• Strong and Skilled: In life, Nagash was an accomplished learner and a skilled warrior, who was able to put these into great use when the time came for him to take over Nehekhara and fight against his opponents. Later on, with inventing Necromancy and mastering it overtime, Nagash's vast experience in the dark magic he dedicated himself into as well as in combat made him one of the most talented and strongest beings in his world.
• There's No Kill like Overkill. The two times he's died; first from being cut up by an Infinity +1 Sword and having the pieces burnt. The second time his head was smashed in by ANOTHER Infinity +1 Sword wielded by a Physical God. He came back from the dead both times.
• Time Abyss: He is over 5,000 years old.
• Tin Tyrant: Justified, as the armor's enchantments kept his body from falling apart after his war with the Skaven Empire. Nagash wears Morikhane, the Black Armour, which in game gives him 4+ armour and ward saves.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Evil as he already was, Nagash surprisingly took a few between 5th edition and 8th edition. Nagash was already the omnicidal inventor of necromancy, but as the lore expanded he was made increasingly arrogant, sadistic and petty on top of this.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: He's accumulated several names and titles to himself. To give off an example, Nagash the Great Necromancer, The Undying King, and Supreme Lord of Undeath. Also known as The Usurper and He Who Shall Not Be Named by his enemies.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: When he became king after murdering his brother. And in stark contrast to his predecessors, Nagash did a lot to ensure that he would be seen as a terrible ruler as well as a morally repugnant being to represent this trope in spades.
• The Undead: He is the creator of the Undead, and thus, has ultimate authority and power over them. That said, not everyone in the undead are appreciative of Nagash's efforts, and they have every right to be so.
• The Usurper: Nagash took the throne of Nehekhara from his brother, took over the Tomb Kings after defeating Settra and even overthrew the god of the Underworld. Before he became undead this was how the Nehekharans referred to him.
• Villain Ball: Grabs it hard during his final battle with Sigmar; ignoring everything save for the fact Sigmar is in possession of his Crown of Sorcery, when Sigmar tears it off his head and throws it at Nagash's feet, Nagash is so obsessed on taking it back, he completely overlooks Sigmar about to smash his chest in with Ghal Maraz.
• Villainous Legacy: He invented Necromancy as an art and wrote books on the subject which are still used to learn about it today; his recipe for an elixir that granted the drinker immortality led to the creation of the first Vampire Counts after Neferata tried to recreate it, but botched the execution; the Tomb Kings as a whole are only active because Nagash tried unsuccessfully to resurrect them as his servants after destroying Nehekhara; and in spite of his death, he left behind plenty of followers to carry on his work in his name and see to his resurrection.
• Worf Had the Flu: The only reason he was able to be killed the first time. He had just gotten through casting the most epic necromantic spell ever, and was thoroughly drained from the effort.
• Zombify the Living: He did this to the people of Nehekhara after poisoning the water supply, but the Nehekharans maintained their personality and free will as he was killed for the first time before he could complete the necromantic ritual.

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