Nerubian

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Nerubians are an ancient race of intelligent arachnoids native to Northrend within the kingdom of Azjol-Nerub.

History

Early history

At the ancient continent Kalimdor's center was a mysterious lake of incandescent energies, the Well of Eternity. It was the true heart of the world's magic and natural power. From this magical ether the silithid were born. As the fallen Old God C'Thun recognized their appearance, he attempted to sunder the world that it once held in its unmerciful grasp. The Old God created avatars from the silithid in its own image. These avatars were to be known as the qiraji.

The aqir ruled the lands of the far west. These clever insectoids were greatly expansionistic and incredibly evil. The aqir were obsessed with eradicating all non-Arthropod life from the fields of Kalimdor. So the two big troll empires of Gurubashi and Amani found their common enemy in the third empire — the nationTemplate:Cite of Azj'Aqir.

The trolls fought them for many thousands of years, but never succeeded in winning a true victory over the Aqir. Eventually, due to the troll's persistence, Azj'Aqir split in half as its citizens fled to separate colonies in the far northern and southern regions of the continent.

Two aqir city-states emerged — Azjol-Nerub in the northern wastes and Ahn'Qiraj in the southern desert. So the new kingdom of Azjol-Nerub that stretched like a great web beneath the desolate glaciers of the land later known as Northrend was founded.^[1]

War of the Spider

Thousands of years later when the Lich King extended his influence over Northrend, the shadowy empire stood against his power. The ancient subterranean kingdom of Azjol-Nerub sent their elite warrior-guard to attack Icecrown and end the Lich King's mad bid for dominance. Much to his frustration, Ner'zhul found that the evil nerubians were immune not only to the undead plague, but to his telepathic domination as well.

The nerubian spiderlords commanded vast forces, and had an underground network that stretched nearly half the breadth of Northrend. Their hit-and-run tactics on the Lich King's strongholds stymied his efforts to root them out time after time. Ultimately, Ner'zhul's war against the nerubians was won by attrition. With the aid of the sinister dreadlords and innumerable undead warriors, the Lich King invaded Azjol-Nerub and brought its subterranean temples crashing down upon the spider lords' heads. The nerubian empire had now fallen for a second time.Template:Cite

Though the nerubians were immune to his plague, Ner'zhul's growing necromantic powers allowed him to raise the spider-warriors' corpses and bend them to his will. As a testament to their tenacity and fearlessness, Ner'zhul adopted the nerubians' distinctive architectural style for his own fortresses and structures. Though there are few pockets of nerubian warriors left, they still seek to gain vengeance upon Ner’zhul and reclaim their subterranean kingdom.^[2]

Recent history

Now, the nerubians are a depleted and embittered people. Most live in Northrend and shun all contact with outsiders — indeed, they attack intruders on sight, viewing all creatures not of their kind with suspicion. Understandably, they possess a vitriolic hatred of undead, especially crypt fiends and crypt lords. They realize that they are too weak to overthrow the Lich King, and must content themselves with their pathetic guerrilla war.Template:Cite

Mael Shelub, a living nerubian necromancer traveled south and worked with (but hated) the Forsaken Blarus Whitrick to defeat the Scourge in Silverpine Forest.Template:Cite

Wrath of the Lich King

This section concerns content related to Wrath of the Lich King.

With the death of their former leaders, the nerubian viziers have risen to power. They serve an "unseen emperor", one who is destined to lead the ancient spider-people to a final victory over the Scourge.^[3] This does not seem to be touched upon in WotLK.

In the quests The Faceless Ones and Proof of Demise: Herald Volaz, Kilix the Unraveler and Archmage Lan'dalock say that as the nerubians fought the Scourge, they dug deeper underground as they lost ground to the undead. "We inadvertently exposed a tendril of the Old God's will, which was made manifest in the creatures known only as the Faceless." He then goes on to say that they lost the war because "In the end, we could not fight on two fronts against such powerful enemies. Our misfortune cost us the war against the undead, and ultimately, our home." implying that the nerubians discovered the faceless ones by accident.^[4]

Culture

Azjol-Nerub contained huge libraries of literature, philosophy, and arcane lore. Occasionally, the kingdom would kidnap humans and elves for experimentation.Template:Cite

Kel'Thuzad claims that they were fiercely intelligent, and their will dedicated to wiping out any who were not like themselves.^[5] Much like the aqir.

Nerubians are cruel and xenophobic.Template:Cite Like their silithid relatives are hostile to all races.Template:Cite

Nerubian culture may place great store in longevity; Nerubians encountered at the Sundered Monolith told Brann their ages, and they seemed impressed by his.Template:Cite

Legends tell of the nerubians' using the jormungar as creatures of labor, forcing them to carve massive tunnels through Northrend's subterranean ice and lay the groundwork for the nerubians' ancient civilization.^[6]

Nerubian culture resembles the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian culture in terms of their architecture, though the ziggurats are of a completely different design.

Architecture

As attested by many traps and contraptions in Azjol-Nerub dungeons, they were once good engineers.^[7]

The Nerubian architectural style was adopte by the Lich King after the War of the Spider^[8] and so Ziggurats, the big Necropolises Naxxramas and Acherus reffer to their building style. Of course most of the architecture can be seen in Azjol-Nerub itself. Another good example for their style is the statue in the Pit of Fiends.

Society

Different types of nerubian are referred to as castes with a life-long occupation and responsibility in society. Seers, for example, are relatively high-level nerubians who act as priests and mages. Spider lords are the rulers of the society in the same mold as the aristocracy of humanoid races.Template:Cite

The spider is the most common motive of the nerubians, and they have appeared to have evolved at least partially into an arachnid race (eight limbs) from an insectoid race (six limbs). Despite the nerubian cultural association with spiders (who reproduce through any male and any female), they reproduce as social insects do, through queens.

Undead nerubians are usually under control of the Scourge and are known as crypt fiends (in the case of most nerubians) and crypt lords (undead spiderlords). Too few crypt fiends appear in Azeroth, so nobody knows yet what nerubian females look like or are called.

Nerubians tend toward evil; they have always been ruthless and aggressive, and since the fall of the Spider Kingdom these traits are more pronounced. Still, nerubians are intelligent, and not all fall into dark ways. They may join a group of adventurers in the hopes of striking against the Lich King, or of gaining the power to do so. Other nerubians, often young ones, leave their homes because they want no part of their people's hopeless conflict and desire to become more than embittered survivors — perhaps they want to attain, at an individual level at least, the heights their people once possessed. The remote possibility exists that a handful of nerubians are not evil and could get along with other races better than their brethren.Template:Cite

Languages

Nerubians speak Common and Nerubian. Nerubian is both a spoken and a sign language.Template:Cite Many nerubians are fluent in Common as well as their own tongue (a clicking rasping language).Template:Cite

Faith

In ancient Azjol-Nerub, there were five or six schools of religious thought, and theological debates were common. Eventually, however, nerubians have come to a conclusion that worshiping creatures from beyond the world is insane, and, in the words of the seer Ul'Tomon, "makes as much sense as a fly caught in a web worshiping the spider who is about to devour him". To modern nerubians, even the concept of "worship" itself is alien. Template:Cite

Castes

Notable

Gallery

A nerubian as seen in Warcraft III.
Nerubians fighting murlocs.
Nerubians lived in or drew power from Ziggurats in Warcraft III.
Nerubians in their halls.
A nerubian building. A hint of qiraji style can be seen.
Another nerubian building.
Unknown nerubian concept artwork
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Nerubian elder
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Nerubian flyer
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Nerubian assassin

Notes

At Blizzcon 2007, the nerubians and the Old Gods were described as B.F.F.^[9]

There are still pockets of nerubians down there literally fighting for their lives, and we have any number of plans about how they play into things. What are they about? Are they principled, or even worse in some ways than the Scourge itself? -Chris Metzen^[10]

A creature who bears some distant resemblance to the nerubians is described in the Manual of Monsters Appendix Three, the Ankhegs, however, the validity of the source is disputed.

References

[1] The Twin Empires

[2] War of the Spider (History of Warcraft)

[3] ttp://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/bestiary/index.xml

[4] The Faceless Ones

[5] Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, page 216

[6] ttp://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/bestiary/index.xml

[7] "Legacy of the Damned: Into the Shadow Web Caverns", Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment.

[8] War of the Spider (History of Warcraft)

[9] ttp://www.wowinsider.com/2007/08/04/blizzcon-day-2-wow-lore-and-quests-panel-liveblog/

[10] ttp://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3163178

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