Nergal (Fire Emblem)
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Nergal is the fictional main villain of Fire Emblem for the Game Boy Advance. He took control of the famous mercenary group; the Black Fang, to use it for his own selfish desires. He has the ability to absorb the quintessence, or life force, of people, which immediately results in their death. He uses this quintessence to create artificial beings, called morphs, known for their distinctive black hair, yellow eyes, blood-red lips, and unconditional obedience to their master. One of the first of those morphs seen in the game; the sage Sonia, marries the Black Fang leader; Brendan Reed, and helps her master to seize control of the organization.
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[edit] Character history
[edit] One millennium before the events of Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
Originally, Nergal wasn't evil. He was a powerful but benevolent shaman who had two children, Ninian and Nils, with the famous Ice Dragon of Ilia, Ninis. However, as explained through a flashback in chapter 19xx, his wife was kidnapped during the Scouring, and he left his children at the Dragon's Gate while he attempted to rescue Ninis with instructions to leave through the Gate if he didn't return. Apparently, this attempt ended in failure, as Ninian and Nils indeed left through the Gate, believing that their father never returned.
Nergal was next seen wandering in the desert alone 500 years later to meet the Archsage Athos. Ninis was dead by the time the game takes place.
[edit] Arcadia
While Nergal was wandering the desert seeking knowledge, he met the Archsage Athos, who also sought knowledge. The two were equals in intelligence and knowledge, and quickly became friends. Together, they found the last dragon village: Arcadia, where all the dragons who refused to fight in the Scouring or fleed the land through the Dragon's Gate resided. Nergal created a magical barrier around Arcadia, and it became a peaceful haven for lost travelers, a utopia where humans and dragons lived together in harmony.
Over the centuries, the friends grew apart. While Athos studied the language and knowledge of the dragons to spread this paradise to the outside world, Nergal learned the secrets of quintessence; his soul becoming progressively twisted and dark as he experimented upon higher and higher life-forms, becoming deaf to the pleas of his friend; when he moved up to humans, Athos and the other villagers were forced to defeat him.
[edit] After the Fall
Nergal survived, however, with a hideous injury on the upper-right side of his face (the nature of which appears to be that all the skin was removed; this scar is usually covered by his turban) and hid into Bern, slowly increasing his power so as to avoid detection. Drawing in the mercenary Renault with false promises to revive his fallen friend, he created his first morph, who was apparently made in the image of Renault's friend. Enraged, as the morph was merely a soulless and emotionless shell rather than an actual revival, Renault left Nergal's service and joined the clergy of St. Elimine. Nergal dismissed him without a care; he had created his first morph, and he could now create more.
After creating multiple morphs, who were apparently given numbers rather than names, he created the Magic Seal Kishuna; his first morph with emotions, and also the first named morph. Despite frequent misconceptions, Kishuna is not the morph of Renault's friend; Renault's friend was made into the first morph, whereas Kishuna is the first morph with emotions.
Although at first he was happy that he had created a being with emotions, even comparing the process to the gods of Elibe making humans, eventually, as his soul grew even darker and more callous, he became sick of the morph --who could not attack, cast magic, harvest quintessence, and even, due to his Magic-Sealing nature, hindered Nergal's abilities --, and exiled him. At the time of Blazing Sword, Kishuna appears a few times with a small force to attack Eliwood's group, presumably to attempt to work his way back into his master's favor.
[edit] Events immediately before Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
[edit] Plans at the Dragon's Gate
After centuries of machinations, he and Sonia killed the most powerful family of mages in Lycia to gain their secret knowledge of calling dragons; only one member survived-- the family's infant daughter, Nino. Though Sonia wanted to kill her, Nergal insisted that Sonia raise her as her own daughter, so that she could be used as a weapon in his service. However, Sonia mistreated her so badly (through complete neglection and emotional manipulation) that Nino was only able to learn any magic through her own natural talent, and could not even read at 14 years old.
He planned to summon dragons through the Dragon's Gate, and absorb their quintessence/control them in order to take over the world. Using the knowledge he gained from killing the mage family, he called out to the vanished dragons through the Dragon's Gate, and two of them responded to his call... Ninian and Nils. He captured his own children (although it should be noted that at no point during the game does it appear that he or his children realized the relationship) and took their dragonstones (where they had stored all their energy in during the crossing over), almost killing them in the process (without their dragonstones, dragons have great difficulty surviving in Elibe, due to the events of the The Scouring (the war between dragons and humans a millennium ago). Although he planned at first to have them open the Dragon's Gate (as the gate was designed for dragons, only dragons could open it) for him, allowing him to summon as many dragons as he liked, they refused. In an attempt to protect their people on the other side of the gate, they escaped.
[edit] During Blazing Sword
Disguising themselves as a bard and dancer, the siblings flee Nergal's forces, but they couldn't hide forever. During Chapter 7 in Lyn's tale, the siblings meet Lyn (actually, only Nils is present at their first meeting, as Ninian has been captured). Nils begs for Lyn's help, and her group defeats the bandits who have kidnapped Ninian. Though it is actually Lord Eliwood of Pherae (a virtuous man who happens to be passing through the area) who finds her, she is reunited with her brother. After Lyn defeats her evil granduncle Lundgren and rescues her grandfather, the siblings leave, as they don't want their new friends to be endangered, and are quickly recaptured by Nergal.
Despairing, Nils and Ninian contemplate suicide as their only means of escape. However, before they completely lose hope, a happy event for Nergal and the catalyst for Eliwood's journey occurs: the capture of Lord Elbert, Duke of Pherae and Eliwood's father. Nergal gains much quintessence from this event, as all of the knights guarding Lord Elbert were of strong body and mind, and is very happy; with a bit more power, he will be able to call dragons or force Ninian and Nils to open the gate for him. The easiest way to gain this much quintessence is to start a war, which will cause many deaths and feed into Nergal's power.
While Nergal sends Ephidel, a morph sage with a male appearance, to tempt the greedy and weak-willed Marquess Darin of Laus into rebelling against the ruling country Ostia and start a civil war in Lycia, as well as sending Sonia to convince the King of Bern to join forces with the Fang and conquer the rest of Elibe (this could be seen as an allusion to Fire|Emblem: Sword of Seals, which takes place 20 years after Blazing Sword and deals with Bern's invasion of Elibe under a new king), he puts Elbert in the same cell as Ninian and Nils. Elbert comforts the siblings with tales of his family, and helps them to escape.
Inadvertently aided by Eliwood and his group, he recaptures Ninian, and, by using her power; almost succeeds in bringing a Dragon through the gate, but thanks to Nils; Ninian regains control of herself and his plan fails. He is injured by Elbert and is forced to retreat.
After recovering, he captures Ninian once again, and tries to force her to open the gate. She refuses, and in the end, she transforms into an ice dragon and escapes, only to be killed by Durandal (a sword that was one of the legendary weapons) which is wielded by Eliwood. He pursues Nils, and after being confronted by his former friend, Athos, he decides to retreat, and awaits for the next encounter.
Eliwood and co. fight their way to the Dragon Gate, and after a long and hard battle, Nergal finally falls, but with his last breath, he manages to open the gate and bring in three Dragons.
Nergal desires to become completely immortal, and comes extremely close to this goal.
[edit] Character Analysis
Nergal belongs to a unique class called the Dark Druid, with extraordinarily high power and defenses, with all other stats being high in addition. He attacks with the second strongest Dark magic in the game, Ereshkigal, second only to Gespenst.
| By game |
Genealogy of the Holy War characters • Fire Emblem (GBA) characters • Sacred Stones characters • Path of Radiance characters • The Goddess of Dawn characters |
|---|---|
| Main characters |
Marth • Celice • Sigurd • Roy • Lilina • Lyn • Eliwood • Hector • Ephraim • Eirika • Ike • Elincia • Micaiah • |
| Villains/Antagonists |
Garnef • Medeus • Doma • Hardin • Alvis • Manfloy • Julius/Loputousu • Reidrick • Veldo • Zephiel • Nergal • Prince Lyon / The Demon King • The Black Knight • Ashnard • Sephiran |
| Enemy Groups |
Dolua Empire • Grandbellian Empire • Loputo Sect. • Schwarze Rosen • Kingdom of Bern • Black Fang • Grado Empire • Kingdom of Daein/Daein Army • Imperial Senate of Begnion • |
| Locations | Akaneia • Jugdral • Elibe • Magvel • Tellius |
