Nagash

What an asshole.

"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." Nagash the Undying

Nagash is the First Necromancer and arguably the most evil character biggest asshole most evil badass asshole character to ever curse the Warhammer Fantasy world. Ever. He is also fucking badass who went into hand-to-hand combat with the likes of Sigmar, and has plans to kick Khorne, Tzeentch, Slaanesh, and Nurgle out of the Warp and become Chaos itself. Despite being the setting's main villain apart from Archaon and the Chaos Gods, he hasn't been directly involved in as much as you think. He did destroy Nehekhara, nearly killed Sigmar (but successfully handicapped him until his ascension) and used his armies of undead to fight THE ENTIRE SKAVEN EMPIRE to a stalemate, but until the End Times (see below), his main mark on the setting was creating Necromancy and what his various fan-clubs and critics have been doing with it.

Nagash's history (with evil aspects added) and name were taken from the historical Armenian Catholic priest Mkritch Naghash (Who was also famous for his writings; he was a poet). In addition, he's Warhammer Fantasy's answer to Vecna and Darkseid. His history has elements of the Pharaoh Nephren-Ka from the Cthulhu Mythos (he was a tyrannical Pharaoh who set up an unholy cult, built a giant evil structure, was overthrown by his people because of his tyranny, all evidence of his reign was purged and became immortal after the defeat).

Background

Nagash started as a Hierophant consecrated to the gods of Nehekhara while his brother was the priest-king of Khemri. This was because, in Nehekhara, the firstborn sons of the nobles were given to the temples as priests and the second sons became the kings. Pissed off about this, he decided he wouldn't accept his fate and started investigations on how to increase his magical power. Initially his reasons also included that he thought his brother Thutep was a weak king and Nagash could make Khemri great again (plus he REALLY had the hots for Thutep's wife, and the whole celibacy thing really sucked). Unfortunately for the Khemrians, he got his hands on some Dark Elf sorcerers who'd been taken prisoner (note that this is actually not long after the High and Dark Elves split off from each other, back before Malekith forbade males from learning magic). From them he learned about the winds of magic and also figured out how to increase his own life expectancy and dabbled in magic much more evil than he (MAY) have initially intended. Regardless, when Nagash was done with the sorcerers he brutally killed them and consumed their souls (you know that when someone can out-evil and out-betray Dark Elves, they're cold mothafuckas). An interesting piece of trivia is that these trio of Dark Elves were the leaders of the covert-op unit that was killing Dwarf caravans to start the War of the Beard. So we can place Nagash in the timeline properly; the first Nagash novel occurs approximately just after the second War of Vengeance novel and demonstrates another way the Dark Elves have helped fuck up the world.

After a fair amount of time and many experiments (which involved mass human sacrifices) which generally consisted of evil magic-y things, Nagash created an elixir which allowed him to stay alive through death (although the body degenerated, becoming essentially a lich without a Phylactery) and penned nine different Necronimicon/Book of Vile Darkness books which contain all of his work (which nobody to date has ever managed to attain the same degree of working knowledge of; because Nagash took a leaf from Sauron and Voldemort and inscrolled part of himself in each of his artifacts so no one but him can master them). The books explain the details and use of Necromancy, a new form of magic that Nagash had distilled from Death magic along with the rituals of the Tomb Kings and the Dark Magic tidbits his Dark Elf tutors gave him. Necromancy, although useable by the forces of Chaos, also repels it; in a way the Undead are artificial Daemons made of equal amount magic and material which flips the middle finger at the laws of physics (as much as Chaos has laws of physics anyway) of both. Nagash gained knowledge of all of the Winds, including those that did not blow through Nehekhara, and became one of the only mortals to gain a grasp of understanding about the Chaos Gods without his mind breaking. Far from it in fact, he saw them as a goal; to become Chaos and rule over the material plane consisting only of the mindless Undead. During this time Nagash planned to overthrow his brother, scheming with several disgruntled military officers and nobles (including a certain wastrel who would go on to become his infamous right hand man). Nagash then killed his brother and sorta mummified his wife alive to make into his sex-slave skeleton at a later date, then killed her to break the covenant between the Nehekharans and their gods.

Nagash contracted the services of the Skaven, and assembled the largest pyramid in Nehekhara (a big feat) made entirely out of black Warpstone. From this, he was able to channel the energies of Necromancy and raise a massive Undead army which he used to launch a war on the entire rest of Nehekhara. For the first time the bitter city states banded into one unified army, and beat back Nagash's undead armies. Nagash fled into the desert, the Saharan style one with no water anywhere. Without any of his elixer, he was doomed to perish in the wastes. He did too, then got right back up and walked home.

That's right, Nagash went "fuck this" to death itself (once again, another being who makes the Emprah look like a failure. It's sort of a theme in Fantasy though).

When Nagash returned, he found that the folks in Lahmia had been up to mischief. The Queen of Lahmia had been reading his nine books and had made a new form of the Elixer, which required only one drinking and left the user with flesh and a human visage (at the cost of needing blood to survive). She had shared them with her court, creating ten other Head Vampires who in turn had created Bloodlines by turning others. Among them was W'soran, a priest who worshiped Nagash like a god (and probably tried to hump his leg when Nagash came before them; he pretty much orgasmed from Nagash's presence in the Time of Legends novels, described as "...waves of ecstasy and terror"), the warrior Abhorash, the diplomat Ushoran, and POSSIBLY (by which one Bloodline claims it's true, and everyone else thinks it's bullshit) the Queen's husband Vashanesh along with the othersix, who we know nothing about). Nagash went back to his pyramid and made the Vampires his lieutenants against the living (other than W'soran who, upon being separated from Nagash's leg, took his followers into Nagash's library and poured over his assembled knowledge).

The Nehekharans once again united, but this time shit was too much for them. The leader of the Nehekharan forces, the current king of Khemri named Alcadizzar, was spirited away by the VERY frightened Skaven (united for the first time in THEIR history over the whole thing) into Nagash's pyramid itself and given a sword made of pure Warpstone which was SO deadly, Alcadizzar only had a short amount of time to use it before he himself died just from touching it.

So our "hero" was teleported straight to the big bad's throne room and given his one weakness to use before the big bad can react. The only thing the Skaven DIDN'T do was actually physically do it. It was basically the ultimate sacrifice; killing Nagash cost Alcadizzar literally everything. His kingdom (the largest empire in the world) was killed to a man during the final battle, in which his family died which ended his line forever, his sanity was shattered, and the weapon he needed to use to kill Nagash was so potent it was guaranteed to kill the wielder as well. And it did; the Skaven got the Fellblade back when his lifeless body washed up on a coast, still clutching the deadly blade.

Before Nagash died however, he managed to cast a spell which killed EVERYTHING in Nehekhara (making it a land with no water anywhere, no vegetation, no animals, nothing; just skeletons). But he failed to account for the the magical protections that had been placed on every Nehekharan royal (and most nobles) ever, so instead of Undead slaves everyone who ever lived in Nehekhara woke back up at once with the peasantry being mostly mindless Undead while the royals fought over who in the twenty or more generations of the family got to sit on the throne they all had at one point...Tomb Kings everybody!

During the final battle between Nagash and Alcadizzar, the humans had broken the ranks of the Undead and the Vampires had begun blaming each other. After a night of dueling and namecalling they made a run for it (other than W'soran's followers, most of whom refused to leave Nagash's burning library. For W'soran's part, he hauled as many books as he could away and made off into the night).

Nagash's nine books were lost, popping up in various times and places. Alcadizzar's body, bearing the Crown of Sorcery made by Nagash (which was actually a modified Phylactery) washed up on shore in the Old World along the Mediterranean equivalent, which gave rise to the Necromantic kingdom of Mourkain.

His story doesn't end here however; he came back after a couple of centuries (the Skaven had vaporized his remains so it took a lot of time for him to remake himself). After wiping out the Skaven who'd taken over his fortress, Nagash raised an army and attacked the newborn Empire. During the final battle he fought in a duel with Sigmar himelf and nearly defeated him. Sigmar, realizing what was at stake went on a Humanity Fuck Yeah! rampage and finally crushed Nagash's skull with his hammer. The spirit of Nagash fled the battlefield and went back to his fortress were he recovered, having learned that the world now has powers capable to match him. Even Sigmar at the height of his power only just managed to defeat Nagash, and even then only by wearing Nagash's own crown to protect him from Nagash's magic. A crown that had pretty much sent Sigmar insane the last time he wore it. Even then, fighting Nagash crippled Sigmar; though the latter still kicked a lot of ass he never regained his full strength until he reached godhood.

Nagash did pop up a few times more after that, but each time he did, he was weaker than the time before; the Fellblade was so deadly, its killing blow was continuing to eat away at Nagash's very spirit, slowly making him less and less with each incarnation.

During the downtime, Nagash recruited a "young" Vampire named Mannfred von Carstein to serve him, and he worked with Nagash's servant Arkhan the Black to resurrect their master. Now the time has come...FOR GAMES WORKSHOP TO UNLEASH THEIR LATEST CASH COW IN THE NAME OF NAGASH!

Why Nagash is so evil

While most evil characters on the game have done their share of bad deeds Nagash has an special place amongst them, the following lists illustrates how sick this fuck is:

• Entombed his own brother alive and stole his wife.
• Turned said wife into an agony-ridden walking corpse and kept her that way for centuries. The process he used to accomplish this involved tricking her into drinking the blood of her murdered son; who was also Nagash's nephew.
• Usurped Nehekhara's throne; then his reign was responsible for the deaths of at least tens of thousands of people, and he nearly destroyed the kingdom's economy to build his Black Pyramid.
• Captured the spirits of his enemies and kept them in eternal torment.
• Started a war which destroyed many of the Nehekharan cities and killed even more of the population.
• Broke the covenant between the Nehekharan gods and their people, not only removing the divine powers of the Nehekharans but ensuring that after death they wouldn't be able to go to their gods and would have to stay in a nether dimension forever. Especially jarring if you remember that he used to be the High Priest of their religion.
• Indirectly corrupted some of the nobility of Nehekhara, who became the first vampires.
• Turned a whole tribe of his followers into ghouls because they annoyed him several times by asking him to give them a promised reward.
• Used his loyal vassals as tools in a terrible incantation to make himself a magic set of armour and then, for the only time in any of his fluff, he does something nice for someone besides himself (he compliments them for exceeding his expectations). After complimenting them he devoured their souls.
• Started a new war against Nehekhara which cost thousands more lives.
• Used a horrible plague spell to annihilate the entire Nehekharan civilization after losing the war against them.
• Raised the Nehekharan dead, turning them into millions of undead minions with the idea of annihilating all life in the world.
• Almost destroyed the Empire and nearly crippled Sigmar in a duel by using a poisoned blade.
• Cursed the Vampires with a vulnerability to Sigmar's power after the assholes were too self-absorbed during the war with the Empire to help Nagash out.
• Corrupted the dragon's graveyard and created the zombie dragons.
• The End Times adds killing several demigods and a god so he can take over from the Chaos Gods.
• Killing messengers from the Empire asking for his help when a 'no' would have been enough, then turning around and expecting to get help when he's forced to ask the living for it.
• Betrayed Sigmar and the forces of Order to become the supreme god, allowing Chaos to take over seven eighths of the realms, only to get beaten by Archaon.

While some of the deeds on this list may have been done by your Skaven, Dark Elf or Chaos Lord there is a basic difference between them and Nagash, the former usually do this either to advance their entire race, clan, tribe or to appease and/or promote their gods; and no single member of those factions has done as much as Nagash. Nagash on the other hand didn't care about anyone, despised the gods and had no empathy for his people. He fucked up his own nation and a large section of the world for his own personal gain and, so far as the fluff goes, he has never cared or done anything for anyone other than himself, with his ultimate plan being quite literally to turn everything into undead with no will under his command. To be fair, Nagash honestly believes this to be the best thing for the warhammer world, . And he might be right. Chaos has a hard time corrupting the undead, and Nagash has already managed to steal one of Khorne's favoured champions (Krell). Though he also a gigantic sociopath; sadistic, arrogant and with the empathy of a brick to the dick. In the End Times, even Malekith considered Nagash too evil for him at first and wanted to destroy him. Black Library seems to share the idea, since a banner promoting the book "The Return of Nagash" names him as "The Greatest Villain in the Warhammer World".

In the Game (Old Times)

Nagash in all his derptastic evilness.

Nagash was actually a special character back when it was just Warhammer Armies: Undead and all the dead boys were united in one armybook. Despite being described as "a pale shadow of his former self" he was an unholy rapetrain - a statline with the lowest stats being 6's (init and attacks) and everything else being a 7. Add in a completely unmodifiable 4+ save against everything (including any and all spell effects), a sword that gives him +1 str and lets him use any wounds he causes to heal himself and being one of the most powerful mages in the game making him pretty much unstoppable. (Unless you threw a High Mage at him with Drain Magic and Banishment which resulted in epic lulz.)

It used to be speculated, before Games Workshop advanced their storyline with The End Times and Age of Sigmar, that Nagash getting off his bony arse and doing shit would be a game ender. There were only a handful of non-divine characters equal to or more powerful than him such as Sigmar [who'd beaten him once before], Kroak [though now he's much weaker as a ghost-Slann] and other First Spawning Slann who would simply think Nagash out of existence if they were still alive, arguably Morathi, Malekith, Aenarion, Teclis [is described as being if not his equal in magic, then close behind], and Archaon the Everchosen. It was even said that nothing short of the direct intervention of gods would stop him and even then, the world would be a graveyard.

His return was a game changer; it was the big event used to introduce and promote The End Times.

In those days Games Workshop chose to give him what might very well be the single most derptastic model to ever blight a tabletop with its presence, an unholy abomination of fail so ridiculous that it makes the Tyranid Biovore look like a towering monument of awe and might in comparison. Even the beardiest of cheesemongers thought twice before fielding it, knowing all too well that they would pay for it not only in army points, but in dignity and self-respect. There was a running joke that the model was made stupid-looking to prevent people from using Nagash, therefore keeping him from changing the status quo.

Interesting, there could have been a chance to have a non-derpy Nagash model the whole time. The true reason for this terrible model was internal strife within the company. Years ago, when GW cared somewhat about the customers more than their money, the sculptor wanted Nagash to have more of a desiccated corpse look, while a skeletal look was being demanded from his superiors. In an attempt to force them to accept a resculpt with a non-skeletal face, he made Nagash's skull as stupid-looking as he could (oh, how he succeeded). Unfortunately, they decided to go with that sculpt instead of demand he redo it.

The End Times

GUESS WHO'S BACK!!!!!!!

1000 points, and costs 100 Naggaroth dollars, now 99 percent derp free! It would be 100% if not for the derpy skull face on the staff or the buck-teeth on the ghosts.

Nagash is back, with fuckawesome (and fuckexpensive) model and another storyline chapter that involves everyone this time.

His primary goal is to bring order to the world; with the dawn of the End Times we see the High Elves and Dark Elves getting railed by massive chaos incursions while the Wood Elves sit in their forest laughing about how everyone is gonna be speared on Slaanesh's dick but them. The Beastmen who are massing disagree with this assessment however. The Empire is currently taking it from behind by nearly every faction in the game (mainly the Warriors of Chaos lead by Archaon who is determined not to end up looking like a little shit this time) at the moment, with Kislev having been almost entirely wiped out (assuming this "End Times" is a wash like the last one they'll have rebuilt their green wood castles in a week, but still). Bretonnia was in flames as civil war tore through the country, but has mostly united now, even if 50% of the population died. The Orcs & Goblins have been decimated by the attacks of Eltharion the Grim against their race as WAAAGH!s that lasted since the dawn of time were obliterated with fire magic, leaving no spores to repopulate. The remainder of their race (barring individuals and their bands such as Skarsnik, Warlord of the Eight Peaks and Grimgor Ironhide) are heading straight for eastern Ulthuan into a trap that could possibly work and wipe out most of the greenskins. The Skaven backstabbing and plotting against the world hasn't changed of course and are currently conquering the majority of the southern human nations with numbers that even vampires think is excessive. Lizardmen are under assault from Daemons, and Mazdamundi declares that the great plan has failed and that a great exodus must begin. Dwarfs have barricaded themselves in their holds, or else gone about trying to retake and rebuild the Eight Peaks thanks to being shunned by both the Empire and Tyrion when help was offered in their missions against the Undead (of course, thanks to the fact that Dwarfs will rather destroy their own race than let grudges go, it's unlikely that the Dwarfs will be around long after reunification and the chance to avenge themselves at each other with impunity). Of course since this is Games Whiteshop, we wouldn't hear about what's going on in the rest of the world with the browns and Asians... if not for Josh Reynolds. Cathay was embroiled in a civil war instigated by local Tzeentch worshippers along with them and everyone else being clusterfucked by Chaos, Skaven and/or Undead too.

In his own End Times book, after much scheming, magic and war from Arkhan and Mannfred, Nagash has risen again. He held up his hands for quiet, then told the assembled peoples of the world this; "Guys, I got a plan. Everyone just take off your skin and meat, and line up over there. Trust me guys, this'll work for sure." As one can imagine, that isn't going over so well. The first to get crushed was Settra the Imperishable, who united the Tomb Kings (and punished those who refused to kiss the ring and get in line by ordering their unliving skull by used as artillery ammunition) against just such a threat. The idea that anyone rule over SETTRA THE FUCKYOU was too much for the old man, but it turned out badly and his army (plus one of his gods) were destroyed/eaten by Nagash. Likewise, Archaon stopped his march into the Empire and instead followed a route that would lead him to the massive Undead fuckhead that DARED to take HIS rightful place as big-bad of the setting.

By the way you can read the efforts of Arkhan and Mannfred to bring back Naggy in the "The Return of Nagash", brought to you by Black Library, among the highlights of the novel you get Count Nyktolos "Count Von Count", finally fulfilling the long time wish of /tg/ to get the old Sesame Street star as a vampire Count.

Following similar logic, Queen Neferata has gathered a massive army pulled from the Undead across the world, as well as the living armies whose leaders have been under her thumb since day one. But she has not yet decided who she'll follow; on one hand, serving Nagash would be beneficial as he's seeking to become the Chaos God of Undeath (replacing all four of the other Chaos Gods and BECOMING Chaos Undivided) which would make her ruler of all beneath him. On the other hand..."serving" isn't something she does, to the point that one of her earliest decisions after leaving his service originally involved pooling all the forces available to her to go fuck up one of her closest allies and his entire kingdom because he implied that he was better at ruling than her. If she DOES choose to serve however (as in, if the player who shells out $79 for her model fields her as a model in the Undead Legion army) she becomes known as the Mortarch of Blood and takes place in Nagash's trinity of servants.

But Nagash has planned for his return well. His first servant and first in the big three Mortarchs, Arkhan the Black, became known as the Mortarch of Sacrament. Arkhan leads Nagash's main army against the forces of the world. Meanwhile Vlad von Carstein, Mortarch of Shadow, leads a detachment of Nagash's forces against Archaon's Chaos army to ensure that the Nordic fuckup that got boo-ed offstage in Storm of Chaos doesn't interfere with Nagash's big moment in the spotlight. He even cemented power by entering the Afterlife, defeating and consuming the god of the dead for humanity Usirian (AKA Morr and all the other names humans have for their god of the dead in Warhammer Fantasy). He even tore Settra apart, though didn't kill him, and forced Settra to watch the destruction of Khemri. Nagash then went on to bitch-slap the Tomb Kings into submission, destroying the few that resisted and finally has his FUCKHEUG undead army to conquer the world, which he will use to ruin the day of Chaos' forces, he also has now a Necron Monolith his own Flying Black Pyramid.

Nagash landed the Black Pyramid in Sylvania, surrounded by a River Styx expy where the magic builds up, and spent the next three books chilling in a sarcophagus, slowly absorbing the wind of Death Magic. During that time Arkhan took a leaf from the Witch King and the Mouth of Sauron, keeping the undead legions in order. When Isabella and the turncoat Nameless lead a Nurglite host attack Sylvania, Arkhan arranged a battle plan. The undead hold them off but they force their way to the front, even slaying Krell and Arkhan. Just after Arkhan is killed by Isabella, Nagash wakes up and enters the battle, but while Isabella distracts Nagash by trolling him her Skaven allies destroy the Black Pyramid with warpstone bombs (the warpstone equivalent of nukes) placed by tunneling teams. Nagash gets pissed enough to impress an Angry Marine and destroys all the daemons, including a Great Unclean One, with a single blast of magic. After venting, Nagash took stock. Between that epic, magical temper tantrum and the Black Pyramid's destruction he can't reach godhood as he originally planned. After much introspection Nagash swallowed his pride and conceded that he would either have to serve the Chaos Gods or ally with the living to survive. He reluctantly chose the latter, bringing back Arkhan and Krell; despite his frustration over their failure, he needed loyal, intelligent servants.

He leaves Neferata to rule Sylvania and its undead legions before going to Athel Loren, sending Mannfred as a messenger to parley. During the meeting Nagash tries to engender goodwill by handing Mannfred to the elves as compensation for Aliathra's death, but he also taunts Alarielle and Tyrion about Aliathra's fate and withholds Arkhan's involvement because he's too useful (the only reason Nagash even did this was because Malekith had nearly convinced the other Incarnates that they didn't need Nagash and, combined, the six Incarnates present could have destroyed him). His army is ordered to stay out of Athel Loren, except for Vlad and Arkhan. Nagash and his accompanying two Mortarchs are escorted everywhere under heavy guard including at least two other Incarnates because (understandably) no-one trusts him. When the forces of Chaos arrive, Nagash goes "Bitch Please!" and gives a beatdown to anything thrown at him, from Beastmen warbands to monsters; he even solos A BLOODTHIRSTER... AND WINS! After being teleported to Middenheim with Arkhan, Krell, Vlad and part of his army he roftstomps his way through the Chaos forces occupying Middenheim until they get to the the excavation. Along the way he kills Chaos' prisoners, bringing back all the dead as zombies under his control. His forces do take losses, including Krell being killed by Sigvald. He then he meets Settra, who was restored by the Chaos Gods. He tells Nagash he was sent to kill him, before killing a daemon that was about to attack Nagash. Settra explains that NO ONE COMMANDS HIM, that he's going to take down the Chaos Gods for offering him rulership for service, then he'll come back and Nagash had either better bend the knee or be slain. Settra then goes off to fight the Chaos army, leaving Nagash to join with the others. Nagash gives Arkhan the remaining Morghasts and tells him to cover his retreat and hold the line until dead.

Nagash reaches the artifact with the other incarnates and tries to fight the forces of Chaos, providing a rearguard of zombies raised from the combined dead of Middenheim. He continues curbstomping anything that directly engages him, only fighting an opponent who can match him in the form of a stronger than average Bloodthirster, Ka'bandha.

After all the Chaos forces are defeated with Archaon MIA, the Old Ones artifact destabilizes, creating a magical rift that will consume the world. The surviving Incarnates and Teclis (who takes two winds of magic into himself) start to contain the Rift but fail when Mannfred disrupts the ritual by killing Balthazar. This led to Teclis' death as he tried to re-stabilize the magic by taking a third wind but the power is too much and he is disintegrated. Free of their control, the rift grows; when it touches the surviving Incarnates it sucks out all of their magic, including Nagash's. He is last seen collapsed and panicking while his body crumbles to dust.

Nagash is/was the hero the Warhammer World needed, and probably the one they deserved, but not the one that they wanted. New rumours from the upcoming Age of Sigmar expansion state that the Warp was effected with the essence of the Incarntes, giving rise to eight new gods; meaning Nagash has achieved godhood, but not on his terms and with others who can challenge him. For a while he was allied with the other incarnate gods in this new era, but eventually, being Nagash, he struck off on his own.

On The Tabletop

Nagash used to have a rather blocky-looking model back when Undead was one army, and had a statline so impressive that it took "Ward Save"'s Daemon wanking to make people forget it, the model we have now was very similar to the one that existed back then, including statline, the main differences being he was just as a level 4 monster wizard with +1 to cast, he only knows 5 spells, his staff could only store 2 power dice/cards, and his sword did not have the D3 wounds special rule. He was removed with the modern editions, and lore referenced him as some vague force that was preparing to return to the world.

The End Times update brought Nagash back into the game as a powerhouse, boasting higher stats and better spellcasting than anything else in the entire game. In short he's a Level 5 Wizard with access to the Lores of Death, Light (he's Nehekharan, remember?), Vampires, Nehekara, and a new Lore called "Undeath". He carries his nine books of Nagash which lets him carry NINE spells (total), one being "Ryze, the Grave Call" and the rest generated from any combination of the mentioned Lores, as he pleases(with the newest rules from the Khaine book, he will have ALL spells from all 5 of those lores, plus a special Summon Arcane Fulcrum spell, giving him 41 spells in total). But wait, there's more. He re-rolls any Miscast (but must accept the new result) and can store, at any time in the Magic Phase, up to four Power Dice for later, surpassing the six-dice-per spell... or to empower attacks adding the Heroic Killing Blow to his already powerful sword (+1 Strength and Multiple Wounds (D3), but only one dice per attack have that rule) and being a Monster he also has the Thunderstomp Attack, this guy is a rape machine in close combat.

Thought that was bad it gets worse, Any Undead within 12" suffer two wound's less because of Unstable, plus any other rule that stacks (for example, Battle Standard Bearer). And the cherry on this hell cake: each time he casts a summoning spell of Undeath the points summoned and the range are TRIPLED (e.g. Ryze, The Grave call he ALWAYS has: With difficulty 9+, anyone else can summon 50 points of troops within 12" or 100 at 14+. At best(16+) 150 points worth of Monstruous Infantry at the same range. Nagash summons 150, 300 and 450) respectively at 36". This also includes Raise the Dead tokens, so spend five tokens and now Nagash can raise 600 points worth of models, whereas all other wizards can only raise 200.

Lastly he's 1000 points to field, which is fine because End Times came with a rule update allowing half your army points to be spent on Lords and Heroes, so fielding Nagash has to be at a 2000 point game at the minimum, although you will have no other characters at all (including a Battle Standard Bearer and thankfully Lords and Heroes have a SEPARATE allowance, so if you get Nagash in a 2000 point game you cannot have any other lords(Don't forget, he can summon characters with a base 195pt cost, not to mention any tokens he spends to up that total), but you can have plenty of heroes (which a BSB is). He costs a whopping $105 Ameribucks, although considering the size of his model it's not a terrible deal (for GW anyway). He also currently has the biggest hat in either Warhammer setting, proving that he's the single biggest force to be reckoned with.

Nagash can only be fielded with Undead Legion, his own army that consists of everyone from Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings that he's brought under his rule. As a result there's no "wrong" way to field Nagash; everything you CAN field him with is supported in fluff. His army is even Neutral in alignment, meaning you can get in a 2v2 battle with any army in the game supporting any army in the game. Throwing an Empire army lead by Karl Franz on the field being BFFs with Nagash against Wood Elves and Ogre Kingdoms is completely copacetic in the fluff.

Gallery

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  Nagash back when he was just human (yes, he was an asshole even then)

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  Old school Nagash art.

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  Just when you thought you had convinced the Dwarfs not to bring 6 cannons, they get justification for it.

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  Fuck mortality

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  "I WANT YOU FOR UNDEAD LEGIONS"

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  The Tomb Kings undergo a... management dispute.

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  Nagash, CRUSHING A FUCKING BLOODTHIRSTER in the final battle.