"Such power shall be mine!"
- —Nehb-ka-menthu, referring to the energies unleashed by the Great Ritual of Nagash.[1a]
Even among the Undead, some names were still tremendously powerful and feared, and one of them was that of Nehb-ka-menthu, Tomb King of the ancient Nehekharan city of Khareops, the "City of Columns".[1a]
History[]
The history of Nehb-ka-menthu begins thousands of years ago, when the great army of Alcadizaar the Conqueror fell upon the Nehekharan city-state of Lahmia, totally and completely crushing the city because its queen, Neferata, had sought to recreate imperfectly the Elixir of Life of Nagash, the Great Necromancer, and studied his evil magic. The Vampires of Lahmia had fought with all the fury and wrath that they were capable of, but King Alcadizaar's army was driven by a righteous frenzy. He had come to punish the city for embracing the heresies and blasphemies of the cursed Nagash. The invaders intended to set fire to every trace of the necromancer's evil, or so Alcadizaar had presumed.[1a]
Among his army was the host of Khareops, commanded by the priest king Nehb-ka-menthu. He had come to loot and steal the dark wisdom that Lahmia had acquired, for the priest king harboured his own monstrous ambition: he desired to rise far beyond even eternal life and the supernatural power of Vampires. The insane priest king hoped to transform himself into something even greater. He aspired to become nothing less than a second Nagash![1a]
Only a few Vampires managed to escape when Lahmia fell before Alcadizaar's host, most perishing in its defence, but a group of these beings were captured by Nehb-ka-menthu's Khareopano soldiers when they tried to flee from the doomed city. The Vampires were locked up by the soldiers of the city of Khareops in silver-coated boxes to be transported to the City of Columns. Nehb-ka-menthu had protected his dark secret by ordering the death of all surviving soldiers who had participated in the encirclement of Lahmia when the army returned to Khareops. Hundreds of warriors had taken turns beheading their comrades, the last of them slicing open their bellies with flint knives. The priest king then carried out his secret interrogations at the heart of the pyramid that had been erected in preparation for his future death.[1a]
There were torments that could break even the will of the Undead, and Nehb-ka-menthu had discovered them all. Over many years, the imprisoned Vampires gave up their secrets as the insane priest king relentlessly poked their bodies with salt, silver, and hawthorn. He bled them dry and drank the ichor of the Vampires to eternalise his own life. One by one, the captured Vampires were consumed, and their remains were thrown to the wild dogs so that they would never rise again, until only one Vampire remained. She was on the verge of succumbing before history conspired to set her free.[1a]
The Great Ritual had struck all of Nehekhara as Nagash perpetuated the ultimate blasphemy against his former homeland. Before long the Vitae River had been poisoned and invaded by pests through the work of the Great Necromancer, most of the population of Nehekhara had perished and few were left alive, and the ancient dead had risen from their tombs. The Great Ritual affected the entirety of the ancient kingdom, and the Dark Magic of Nagash did not spare the City of Columns. Those still walking the streets of Khareops died; suffocated by dark energy. In the dungeons of his pyramid, Nehb-ka-menthu was drawing blood, once again, from his Vampire prisoner's weak and wrinkled body when the tremendous power of Nagash's spell hit him. As life left the priest king, he did not cry out in pain. On the contrary, he declared: "Such a power will be mine!"[1a]
After his death, the funerary priests of Khareops mummified the remains of their dead king, and yet death had not been the end. The embalming arts of the Undead Liche Priests would have prevented Nehb-ka-menthu's soul from leaving his body. As a spectator, he had watched as the servants of the Nehekharan Pantheon prepared and embalmed his body; he had watched as the funerary priests, the only individuals in all Khareops who stilln walked the dead streets of the necropolis, carried his body within its golden sarcophagus to his pyramidal tomb.[1a]
For some time he remained inside the tomb; oblivious to his body, oblivious to all thoughts, existing in the dark limbo of the Undead. Was it for months or aeons that it stayed that way? But at last, the power had made itself felt again in the Land of the Dead. The Damned One had awakened again, and the power of his black resurrection made itself felt in the carrion realm of Nehekhara. The power had spread and awakened other things in their ancient graves. This is how Nehb-ka-menthu emerged from the grave to compete with his own ancestors for the rule of Khareops.[1a]
As in life, also in withered Undeath the Tomb King Nehb-ka-menthu longed for the knowledge of necromancy and Nagash's power. Shortly after his resurrection he gathered the hosts of the Undead in his city, and he set out to find the ghost tower of Nagash's disciple, the king of necromancers and Liche Lord Arkhan the Black, to plunder that place of the darkest witchcraft, but he could not defeat the Liche. He also tried to make his way inside the profane Black Pyramid of Nagash himself, to steal away its terrible secrets, but could not face the power of Settra -- the first Priest King of Khemri -- who guarded the Black Pyramid for any sign of the return of Nehekhara's immortal enemy, and prevented anyone from entering that place of timeless blasphemy and unspeakable horror.[1a]
Defeated on both occasions, King Nehb-ka-menthu returned to the city of Khareops to regain his strength. Despite these defeats, the wicked Tomb King did not give up. The secrets, the knowledge, the perversions discovered by Nagash, were not yet his. But they would be even if in Undeath.[1a]
Later his sarcophagus was retrieved by Countess Carlotta de Villarias a Lahmian Vampire who had been the last of the Vampires to be captured and tortured by him centuries before. The countess had his body brought to the Tilean city-sate of Miragliano, only to lose it due to the betrayal of some of her subordinates. It was then that she hired Brunner the Bounty Hunter to track down the mummy and destroy it once and for all.[1a]
Even after the destruction of his body Nehb-ka-menthu's severed hand still stalked the city.[1a]
Appearance[]
In life, Nehb-ka-menthu had been a very strong man; over six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and with long limbs. In death, wrapped in the mouldy burial bandages that had turned greyish-green over time and covered in magical pictograms of the Mortuary Cult inscribed on his body to protect his corpse, his decrepit appearance resembled that of a withered Ogre. Through his grey-green mask his face is almost completely intact, with a concave forehead, high cheekbones, and a firm jaw. His Undead countenance had an air of power and cruelty that suggested an implacable and ruthless will that might even have stood the test of the grave.[1a]