Shiva-Nergal
Shiva-Nergal
Shiva-Nergal is an ancient being. Thought to have been one of the First Men from the Hyborean Age, he has ascended to lichdom and a member of the Necrocult's inner circle of the thirteen lich rulers. Currently situated in the Ural Mountains below the Dyaltov Pass.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
As a Lich, Shiva-Nergal is is undead. He is a shrivelled husk of a man, more skeletal than anything.
Special abilities
An expert at history, languages, dealing with perverse creature, and spell casting, he can be hard to reason with or catch out mentally. Also, his Lichdom means that he can resurrect if destroyed and it is still intact. Even him touching anything living will do damage to it. He can call upon a number of undead to his side quickly if threatened.
Apparel & Accessories
Shiva-Nergal generally dresses in purple & red, sometimes with a belt & pouches for spell components, and a crown made of warped & carved bone enhanced with gold & silver. He regularly carries a sceptre made of the same material as his crown.
Specialized Equipment
His sceptre and crown are magical foci that he can use for casting spells. Also, deep below his keep he has a pyilactery that will restore him if he is 'killed' and it is kept safe.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
The exact origins of Shiva-Nergal are unknown, lost to the mists of time. He seems to be extremely old, possibly as old as the Necrocult itself, and extremely powerful. What can be said about him is as follows.
Rumoured to have been one of the First Men to have walked the Earth at the time of the Hyborean Age, Shiva-Nergal had worshipped gods of destruction & death. Taking his name from two of the nascent deities at the time, which were starting to feed of the spiritual energy of Man, Shiva-Nergal felt a kinship to them. When his tribe had passed through the region that was to be settled by the Persians, they were attacked at night by a clan of ghouls which bore a strange mark upon their foreheads. Young at the time, Shiva-Nergal had reached the age of 13 at this point and was in training to become the tribe's mage. Both his power and that of the elderly wizard that was teaching him forced the ghouls off. This was not until most were dead or dragged of screaming to be ate later by these abhorrent creatures. Very little of his family, let alone the tribe, survived and they quickly fled the area going towards the northwest.
After a couple of days of travel with little supplies, sleep and the strength to survive, he felt the call of the gods of destruction and death. Fearing at first that it was the first sign of madness, he didn't listen at first. Over time the visions got stronger and Shiva-Nergal got one that changed his future forever. He was offered further training by avatars of Shiva & Nergal, who showed him the symbol he had seen on the foreheads of the ghouls. They explained that he could carry out training in magic to make him immortal and strike at the wielder of this mark. Described to be Lilith's Sigil and used by a number of powerful vampiric undead, Shiva-Nergal was offered the chance to kill those that used it. The gods explained that he had to leave all other concerns behind and travel to a frozen mountain pass far in the north in a spine of mountains that Man will name the Urals. There was an underground city that had just lost its master and if he could prove he had the determination and fearlessness in death, then the city would be his, along with the undead that resided there. At the same time, he could use these resources to become one of the 'Thirteen', a council of powerful magic users spread throughout the world. They were the opposite of the vampires which relied on the living for food, and instead he would be able to manipulate the living & the dead together to turn the world into a mass grave for his own taking. The vampires would starve slowly and painfully, getting weaker and pitiful while his grew stronger and more powerful.
There was one catch, he had to kill his remaining tribe members and resurrect them as undead. Over the course of a week Shiva-Nergal carried out this evil plan, and soon had a small retinue of undead followers. They served his every whim and protected him from harm. When he encountered small numbers of other peoples, he quickly had them overpowered and added their corpses to his own troop, swelling their ranks further. Travelling through the Balkans he happened upon a school of magic high in the mountains that taught magic by a monster rumoured to be a devil where he spent many years learning the powers of death, destruction and summoning unclean unnameable things into existence.
When he turned 18, he knew he had to go north and travelled as far as the south-eastern corner of the Baltic Sea. As chance would have it, he met his second teacher, a creature of pure malignancy and spite, a being that taught him in the darker arts of the Feywild. Only one creature met this description, the monster called Baba Yaga. She tried to tempt him to stay and become her plaything, but soon realised that he had a far more powerful and horrific fate in store for himself. To this day Shiva-Nergal is one of a small select few that Baba Yaga hates, and fears, in equal measure. His countenance at this point had become one of unadulterated ambition, determination and magical strength. And when the time came, he left her with nary a word, and proceeded to make for the Ural Mountains.
At this point, very little is known about him and his travels in this sparse and little populated part of the world. Most of the sapient peoples who lived there sometimes whisper of a dread foreboding that a youthful spellcaster will sometimes return and take them & their kin into eternal servitude as the walking dead.
The next time any mention of him appears is that elements of the local horse tribes disappear en-mass, with little left behind. This seems to be semi-regular with the full moons, and the summer / winter equinoxes being avoided anywhere near the Urals. Mystics and shamans for many tribes continue to warn that they can feel the presence of Shiva-Nergal during these times of the year and when travelling back on the skeins of the past, and with the aid of the ancestors, are shown the ascension of Shiva-Nergal. He had hundreds killed in blood rituals in a decaying city built by unknown & twisted evil hands in ages past. He had fed these souls to the gods of destruction and fed them through a gold & silver-plated bone-carved sceptre that he carried to a similar object hidden deep within the city. The exact details vary as the magic that protects it never shows this clearly or having different details. All they know is the phylactery is heavily guarded and Shiva-Nergal still lives deep in this low-lit macabre charnel house. His power has grown so vast that the teeming dead act out a parody of a living city and are essentially his playthings. How many are there they just can't tell. All anyone knows is that when they see any undead it had better not have the mark of a mutated bone / silver / gold humanoid skull present somewhere.
A few scholars speculate that the sceptre and phylactery incorporate the remains of aberrations from the Far Realms. Also, they speculate that the site is a focal point for magical energy from the same Realm while being originally inhabited & built by aberrations at some point in early Earth's prehistory. But this is by-the-by, as Shiva-Nergal is the only one that truly knows this, and he is not saying.
Education
Instructed originally by the seer of his tribe in basic magical technique, then the gods Shiva and Nergal. After this he picked up further instruction from the Devil and Baba Yaga. Since that time, he has experimented by himself, sometimes taking in students to pass on these skills, and to learn new magic for himself.
Employment
Shiva-Nergal worked under the initial tutelage of the gods whose names he took. Afterwards he was schooled by the Devil, and them Baba Yaga.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Shiva-Nergal's biggest achievement is turning into a lich and raising himself up as far as the level of the Council of Thirteen presiding over the Necrocult.
He has wiped out many minor cults and tribes and affected the living world in many ways. The most recent attempt to do this was the Huns being manipulated into invading Europe. He knew this would cause major destruction, and create enough dead to allow him to reanimate them.
Failures & Embarrassments
None save the leaders of the Necrocult know any such embarrassments or failures, and they aren't saying due to his wrath.
Mental Trauma
Shiva-Nergal witnessed the death of his parents and tribe leading him down the path to immortality. This still enrages him to the point that he lashes out at any vampire near him.
Intellectual Characteristics
Generally, Shiva-Nergal is known for his knowledge of languages, and the ability to cast almost any spell. His library has an extensive repertoire of grimoires, historical literature, and treaties of concerning the nature & fabric of the multiverse & known worlds. Most of these he knows off by (withered) heart and is always looking for more to learn. Very little information outside of these is unknown to him.
Morality & Philosophy
To say that Shiva-Nergal is a moral person would be a fool. Absolutely devoid of morality, he will stop at nothing to kill the world and reduce it to grave ash. Nothing will stand before him and not feel the hatred he has for life.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
After his troubled childhood, Shiva-Nergal became disgusted with life and its fragility. He also saw that there were unnatural predators in the world that were abominations. The only way he found to focus this was to pray to the gods and bring about the destruction of the world. When Shiva and Nergal answered, his prayers were answered and, and when he reached Lichdom this put him in a position that helped with his plans.
He plots now, looking for ways and means to overcome the living world. Every attempt, whether successful or a failure, he learns. Each is a step in a long winding road to the day that the world of prey & predator stops living, and becomes a sterile wasteland with just the dead continuing.
Social
Contacts & Relations
As a member of the Council of Thirteen that governs the Necrocult, Shiva-Nergal is in constant contact with the other 12 members. He is also struck up deals with the Children of the Nazarene in ages past (mainly to get knowledge of their operations & identify who to weaken). He likes to dabble with other cults buying & selling knowledge that could potentially further his own ends at some later date.
Crafty enough, he knows that elements of the nations & races of the world are constantly vying for dominance. He uses this to cause strife pitting one against the other. If anything, he also helps to silently back certain individuals that could be turned into servants of the Necrocult.
Religious Views
Shiva-Nergal has been religious from an early age. Believing that he was gifted the power of magic from an early age by the Earth Mother, his contact with Shiva & Nergal shaped that his belief that life came from the earth and will easily be sent back to it. Only through magical study can it be manipulated and only the darker aspects of the different religions can this be properly manipulated.
Social Aptitude
An extrovert and megalomaniacal to the extreme, Shiva-Nergal can be quite shrewd in his dealings with others. He usually tried to bind and outwit his opponents where he can. Saying this he can be extremely patient when he needs to be taking in everything he can.
Ancient Lich One of the First Men High ranking Necrocult leader
Current Location
Ural Mountains
"I have heard of this creature. Comes from a time long before the lands we know today, and one of purest evil. Arrogant in the extreme, and difficult to pin down too. I don't think I've met anyone who has ever encountered him, at least who survived. One of the First Men is about all we know and takes his name from two gods of destruction. Part of that big undead cult that we know off. Likely more of his kind spread about as we heard there's thirteen of them, but the others seem to let him be the 'face' of the Necrocult.
Would be careful up there round the Urals. Has messengers & spies everywhere and knows pretty much everything that goes on in the region too. If you see any marks that resemble a mutated skull or items made of mutated carved bones, that'll be related to him. Avoid those places if you can."
Bushtail talking to two lycanthrope hunters in Novgorod.
Alignment
Neutral Evil
Current Location
Species
Age
Unknown
Children
Current Residence
City of the Living Dead
Gender
Male
Presentation
Masculine, dressed in purplish robes with reddish parts.
Eyes
Sunken & dead with pinpricks of red in the centre.
Hair
None
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale, gray and pulled dry over the remaining body
Height
5 feet 7 inches
Weight
120 lb
Belief/Deity
Pagan, deities of destruction and death
Aligned Organization
Other Affiliations
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