I was reading this over the weekend.....and I was so happy I was too overcome to reply until today :'(
They brought Nagash back as I would have wanted! And for you GW, I will finally now come back into your store and buy your goods! I will also be buying the rumoured fluff and army books.
I really like the model personally and for those who are still not clear, gather around and listen to your uncle DoN (this is a bit of a mash of previous fluff and novels):
- Nagash did start off human sized. He was a priest and then learned how to use magic from captured Dark Elves. He also created an Elixir which gave him immortality and enhanced his powers.
- Long story short - he tried to take over Nehekhara and was defeated by the combined might of the other city states.
- He then wanders and discovers the Cripple Peak, which as a massive core of warpstone (meteorite)
- Over the next many years he enslaves a local primitive population (who devolve into Ghouls as they begin to eat human flesh in honour of Nagash), and mines the warpstone. He begins to consume this with black lotus leaf to enhance his arcane abilities and refine what will later become what is known as Necromancy.
- Skaven try to attack and take the warpstone, and the war rages on for years. In the end Nagash and the Skaven reach an agreement. He gives them a good supply of warpstone, they deliver captives of humans, orcs etc.
- What the Skaven don't realise is that Nagash is literally sacrificing all of the captives and consuming their souls for power. It is during this time and the mixture of constant magic use, eating warpstone, black lotus and souls that massively transforms his body. He grows to around 16th foot, and what was left of his organs / skin etc pretty much burns away. Nagash finds some gromril and forges his armour which is becomes part of his body.
- At the height of his power he unleashes a plague that kills everything in Nehekhara bar the king (apparently this was intentional....first targeted biological weapon!). He then prepares to cast his uber spell that will raise everything in Nehekhahra - bearing in mind this is billions of dead over thousands of years.
- The Council of Thirteen catch on and promptly crap themselves as they realise that Nagash will likely not forget the previous wars. However they know that their combined powers are no where near enough to take on Nagash - he has literally become god-like in his power. So they forge the Fellblade specifically to kill him, and infiltrate Nagashizzar to give it to the Nehekharan King who lived - Nagash let him live so he could gloat :rolleyes:
- In the end Nagash was successful, he actually managed to cast his spell which not only succeeded in raising the Tomb Kings, but also raised the dead all over the world, hence there are still many places that the dead wander without direct raising.
- After casting Nagash was pretty much in a coma from the effort, and the King (who was said to be the strongest warrior-king in Nehekhara's history) crept in to attack. Nagash did manage to summon enough power to cast but remotely the Council of Thirteen deflected the attack though it killed some in the backlash. This was enough however for the Fellblade to strike home and kill Nagash for the first time.
Now just to drive home the point :tongue:, it took to kill Nagash:
- Nagash in an almost comatosed state, having just raised all of Nehekhara and undead all over the world
- The deadliest weapon in existence
- The combined arcane might of the Council of Thirteen, each who are said to be immensely potent mages, to deflect a spell from the weakened Nagash, and even then the backlash killed some of them
- The strongest warrior-king to have existed in Nehekhara
When Nagash came back he was described as a "shade of his former strength" due to the regeneration process, and having lost his claw and crown. However this "shade" was also said to be just about equal in combat to Sigmar and was only just stopped by him (and gave him a wound he never recovered from).
The current iteration, is said to be even weaker than that........which makes you realise that if you look at what he can
currently do, how powerful Nagash has the potential to be if he manages to regain his full strength.
SO SAYS THE DISCIPLE OF NAGASH.......BOW DOWN TO THE RETURN OF OUR DARK LORD! GLORY IN HIS MAGNIFICENCE!!
