Moord Nag is a Namibian warlord, and one of the most powerful parahumans in Africa, politically and otherwise.
Appearance
Moord Nag wears a t-shirt with the sleeves removed and the bottom half cut off and an ankle-length dress that is frayed at the edges.
Abilities and Powers
Moord Nag's power, near as anyone can tell, is an enormous living shadow named Aasdier that follows her around. It instinctually reacts to anything that could possibly harm her.[1] It is empowered by absorbing human life and shifts its form to various animal skulls.
Her minion gained a permanent expanded pursuance when it ate the dead.[2] Originally it could fit in the palm of her hand, by 2011 it was large enough for her to ride on.
It is unclear if there is an upper limit to how powerful Aasdier can become and how many lives it can take to fuel and empower itself. It can however lose and regain mass with certain failures on the part of the host or other damage.[1][3]
She requests five thousand lives as her price for fighting an Endbringer (with the implication being that she needs that amount to be strong enough to challenge an endbringer) so she was confident that she could use that amount.
History
Background
Triggering as a young girl whose agency was being taken from her, the woman who would become Moord Nag called for a corpse-eater made of shadows.[1]
Story Start
With the aid of Aasdier, Moord Nag became the de facto ruler of much of Namibia with many smaller warlords paying her homage. now her effective territory extends past Namibia, well into Angola, Botswana, and even a small part of South Africa.[1]
Post-Echidna
When Weaver attempted to use her swarm to see if she had any weapons, Aasdier blocked and killed the insects. She listened as Doctor Mother thanked them for coming before she mentioned that people died every day. Teacher said that he had given her the ability to understand and speak English, and that it wouldn't cost her anything to use it. She told him that she wouldn't speak it.
Doctor Mother asked Moord Nag if she would help them and she turned her down. Tattletale then told Faultline about her before Moord Nag corrected her, saying that she wasn't alone because she had Scavenger. Doctor Mother asked her what it would take to get her to fight and Moord Nag told her she would need to replenish her power. Doctor Mother said that Cauldron would supply her and Moord Nag told her that she would need five thousand lives. Dragon and Chevalier objected to the deal though Moord Nag told them that the contract was sealed before walking away.[4]
Moord Nag later rode Scavenger into battle against Khonsu. She stepped off Scavenger before it lunged at the Endbringer. Scavenger was trisected, but continued to wind around and tear into Khonsu's body. It attacked Khonsu's injuries, knocking him off balance, and then pushed Moord Nag out of the way of one of Khonsu's fields. Then, having enough, Khonsu teleported away from the battlefield.[5]
After her debut on the battlefield against the new endbringer the warlord was targeted by its sibling.[6]
Gold Morning
Later, Moord Nag was contacted by Cauldron for another meeting. She was given an interpreter to tell her about the particulars of the conversation.[7]
Moord Nag later fell under Khepri's control. Khepri sent her into the front-lines alongside Alexandria and Legend as Ash Beast attacked Scion. Sometime afterward, she was pulled back and sent through dimensions to scavenge from the dead. Moord Nag was then redeployed alongside other heavy hitters, relieving the force that had been fighting Scion. Sifara used his power to move Moord Nag closer only for Moord Nag to have a stroke from mental stress. This stemmed from Khepri's control being very similar to her trigger event.
Khepri sent her to Panacea to be healed and then sent her back out against Scion. Scion, however, struck her aside before Scavenger could swell to his full size.[8]
Trivia
- Moord Nag and Aasdier translated from Afrikaans mean "murder night" and "scavenger" respectively.
- It is unknown what effect the Sowto uprising had if any on the rise of Moord Nag.[9]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 On Moord Nag's territory:
All of Namibia, half of Angola, Botswana, and a slice of South Africa
On Moord Nag's power:
Breaker/spectral minion of ambiguous solidity (as it desires) and form. Kill people = minion gains a bit of mass.
Started off like a palm-sized critter. Gained maybe a tablespoon of mass per kill.
She's had a few setbacks along the way. Trying to game it/fool the shard kinda backfired once or twice. Power eraser ate a good chunk once. Found someone who made clones, ate clones. Looked like it worked for a bit, then power rebelled, and she lost a huge chunk of her minion at a critical moment.
She basically has auto-defense. Her spirit will identify incoming attacks & hostility and move to block.
If I were to stat her out in Weaverdice, I'd give her a series of 'stances'. Ride, Safe, Offense. With her spirit behavior changing accordingly.
She doesn't manually control the spirit, but Breadth and Depth are set enough & her conflict yields are high enough that it's effectively a subconscious extension of her anyway, with trust on both sides.
She doesn't turn it off or put it away. She's not in a positions where she ever would or has to. She can send it away. But again, moot point.
It can move through walls but only by destroying them in the process. There's something congealed in there, so it wouldn't pass through a keyhole.
On Moord Nag before "breadth and depth" set in:
Moord Nag was a traumatized pokemon trainer with one pokemon in a war-torn country, and her pokemon didn't always cooperate.--archived conversation on Spacebattles - ↑ Moord Nag Master pet 'scavenger' gains permanent increase in size and power by consuming the dead Independent -Parahuman List, bolded edit by Wildbow.
- ↑ Speck 30.5
- ↑ Scarab 25.5
- ↑ Scarab 25.6
- ↑ Indiscriminate, January 20th, 2012 // Khonsu
Notes: First appearance. Scion/Moord Nag victory. List of all one hundred and sixty three targets and casualty numbers here.
Lüderitz, April 2nd, 2012 // Leviathan
Notes: Loss? Driven away by Eidolon. Secondary targets Swakopmund, Gamba, Port-Gentil and Sulima.
Target/Consquence: Moord Nag. Guerilla tactics continue, losses in notable but not devastating numbers, but his target survives. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6 - ↑ Extinction 27.2
- ↑ Speck 30.5
- ↑ The Soweto Uprising happened, but the events from 1982 onward were increasingly different. Warlords taking over and establishing particular sorts of order or disorder, rules, regimes and so on. Ensuing lies, propaganda, and misinformation muddled up a great deal in the status quo. - Comment by Wildbow on Scarab 25.5