General Nephus

General Nephus

Race

Demon

Level

80

Rank

Legendary

Locations

• Nyedra, Dreamer's Sanctum
  (Inner Nayos)
  
• Spire of Dreams
  (Inner Nayos)

Organization

Kryptis

“

Bring us something other than death.

— General Nephus

General Nephus is an enigmatic Kryptis residing in Nayos, the Realm of Dreams. The denizens of the realm are divided on him; some seem to almost revere him while others get angry when his name is mentioned. Nephus is said to be a kind of Kryptis folk hero and is believed to live deep within Midnight King Eparch's territory despite having some disagreements with the Midnight King. Peitha and Ramses both respect him. He shares the name with House Nephus which includes Cerus, Deimos, and Peitha, but it is unknown what his actual relation to the siblings is.

Nephus is eventually revealed to be one of the founders of Kryptis nobility and Eparch's former right hand before their disagreements on Kryptis future made Eparch exile him. Due to Peitha's manipulations, Nephus is ultimately forced to end his neutrality in the civil war and side with her rebellion to preserve the lives of his followers from Eparch's wrath. In the resulting conflict Nephus assists the alliance of Kryptis rebels and Astral Ward in neutralizing Queen Labris and assaulting Eparch's headquarters in the Citadel of Zakiros where the Midnight King is cornered and ultimately slain. Relieved to see that Peitha has chosen to discard Eparch's essence instead of hoarding it for herself upon her ascension to the throne, Nephus acknowledges her as the new Midnight King and agrees to the treaty with the Astral Ward. Although an air of uncertainty hangs around Nayos regarding whether the Kryptis might become a threat to Tyria again in the future, Nephus personally promises the Ward to uphold the peace as long as he draws breath.

Biography

Early years

Nephus was born in Nayos and eventually founded House Nephus, being one of the respected Kryptis leaders. Sometime during the previous dragonrise, Eparch met with the founders and told them of his experiences on Tyria and how the Seer wizard Isgarren had banished him and was supposedly planning the invasion of Nayos and the extermination of all Kryptis. Eparch's dire warning infuriated the founders and eventually rallied them behind him, and they began preparing the Kryptis for war against Isgarren and any who stood with the Seer. Nephus was named the Grand General of the Kryptis forces and acted as Eparch's second-in-command. He gained a reputation for being "a brilliant strategist, a peerless warrior, and a noble leader," and earned Peitha and Ramses's respect. Eparch and Labris's niece Peitha and nephews Cerus and Deimos were named as members of House Nephus.

As Eparch's influence grew, he named himself Midnight King and made Labris his queen. He, the founders, and various advisors and generals gathered periodically at the Council of Houses in what would eventually be turned into Eparch's base of operations in the Citadel of Zakiros where the nobles would offer their counsel to the king. The Kryptis sent their forces in varying numbers to find a way through the Veil to invade Tyria over the following centuries although their attempts were thwarted every time by local heroes or Isgarren's fellow wizards and the Astral Ward.

Eparch grew more ambitious and greedy over time, and he began controlling and influencing Kryptis society more and more with his twisted vision. The Midnight King eventually stopped seeking his advisors' counsel and began quelling any unrest among his subjects violently, choosing to devour his own people to gain more strength as he had come to believe that the only way for the Kryptis to thrive against Isgarren and other threats was for him to become the most powerful Kryptis in existence. Nephus served Eparch loyally for a time during various times of Kryptis unrest and uprisings known as Disquiets, but he eventually began disagreeing with Eparch's brutal methods and refused to carry out the Midnight King's orders.

Eparch was angered by Nephus's reluctance and decided to act before Nephus could begin another uprising. The loyalists slaughtered many of Nephus's followers in public although Nephus and his remaining forces managed to march all the way to the edge of Zakiros to confront the king's superior army. Nephus ultimately relented at the last possible moment and agreed to a truce rather than allowing his remaining forces to fall in what appeared to be a losing battle. The disgraced general was spared only to serve forever as proof of the king's "mercy"; he was exiled to the corners of Kryptis society to live out his life with his remaining followers. However, Eparch had another reason for sparing Nephus: the general commanded too much loyalty from soldiers, and his death would only cause a greater uprising which the king could not afford at the time.

Secrets of the Obscure

The Realm of Dreams

The Pact Commander, using the title of Wayfinder, and the Astral Ward first heard about General Nephus from whispers in Inner Nayos in 1336 AE, initially unsure of what to make of these rumors. When the moment came to push further into Nayos in early 1337 AE, Peitha suggested enlisting Nephus's help. The Astral Ward was not ready to commit entire legions of soldiers, only volunteers, and so Peitha needed to find local Kryptis who would be willing to not follow Eparch's orders and follow someone else instead, someone who commanded respect, such as Nephus. Peitha and her lieutenant Ramses explained how the general had been Eparch's former second-in-command and had been kept contained in his exile while remaining elusive.

Peitha's scouts eventually tracked Nephus down to his last known location on the outskirts of Nyedra, Dreamer's Sanctum. Peitha, Ramses, and the Wayfinder ventured deeper into the region, finding the disgraced general in the company of his defensive followers who believed that Peitha was approaching them with ill intent. Before a brawl could ensue, Nephus told his soldiers to calm down and offered Peitha a chance to speak her mind. Before her speech could gain momentum, Queen Labris and her royal guard arrived and tried to subdue Peitha's party by force. Peitha urged the onlookers to join with her and fight, but Nephus, in an attempt to remain neutral and protect his people from slaughter, ordered them not to take up arms against the queen's forces. The Kryptis queen, stately yet menacing, eventually called off her forces and made her proposal: in exchange for helping her turn Peitha, Ramses, and the Wayfinder over into loyalist custody, Nephus and his people would be granted clemency and left in peace in Nyedra with both the queen and king's blessing.

Nephus seemed initially receptive to the proposal. However, upon realizing how callously Labris was disrespecting the honor code of guests and threatening Nephus and his followers despite them having nothing to do with Peitha's visit, the general's anger finally boiled to the surface. He chose to swear fealty to Peitha and renounced Labris and Eparch as the alternative would be to live in fear forever. His and Peitha's combined forces turned the tide and made Labris flee. When Peitha thanked Nephus for siding with her, the general answered in tightly controlled fury that his hand had been forced. He challenged Peitha to make up for the violence and misery that her brother and uncle had inflicted upon the Kryptis, and stormed off from the scene.

The party rendezvoused with Nephus outside of Eventide's March, a sacred landmark that Queen Labris and her dwindling army were using as a base of operations after being cornered there by the spreading uprising in Nyedra. The general split the rebel forces, sending Peitha, Ramses, and the Astral Ward representative Arina to attack the queen's position from the flanks while he and the Wayfinder led a direct frontal assault to the Kryptis queen's last line of defense. With nowhere left to run, Labris made her stand and fought fiercely but was ultimately defeated. Nephus was prepared to execute the weakened queen; however, seeing an opportunity to rally the Kryptis to her side with a show of force, Peitha stayed Labris's execution as she intended to present the queen as her prisoner and a bargaining chip in a public showing at the Coliseum of the Midnight King to prove that the growing rebellion could successfully defy Eparch. Realizing Peitha's plan after initial hesitation, Nephus decided to carry it out. He asked the Wayfinder to locate an old Kryptis, Tecla the Venerable, who had knowledge of an array of beacons spread across Inner Nayos which could be used to summon a large crowd to the coliseum.

Eparch finally made an appeararance when Peitha presented the chained Labris to a large Kryptis crowd and made her rallying speech for the king's subjugated people to join the rebel cause. The Midnight King showed his power by immobilizing the Wayfinder and all the members of the Astral Ward, and proceeded to mock Peitha and ask if any of the listening Kryptis wished to follow her, watching in delight as the crowd hesitated. He then made Peitha an offer to spare Tyria and allow her to live there in exile if she would release his queen. However, even in her weakened state, Labris would not allow Peitha to use her as leverage to undermine all that she and Eparch had built. The defiant queen sacrificed herself to her beloved king's cause, forcing the last of her essence into Eparch as he and the rest of the coliseum looked on in horror.

The crowd erupted in chaos—some declaring allegiance to Peitha, some to Eparch. The rest fled in terror. Even the king was stunned by his queen's martyrdom. Roaring in fury, he vowed to devour all who opposed him and challenged any who stood with Peitha to bring the fight to him in the Citadel of Zakiros. Eparch did not exact vengeance at that moment against expectations, however, as he chose to retreat to the citadel hastily. Despite the seeming reprieve caused by the king's exit, Nephus told his allies to stay on their guard nevertheless as Labrir's death would not only end all attempts at diplomacy as Eparch would focus on exterminating the entire rebellion, while many Kryptis would rally behind their king to honor the queen's sacrifice.

The Midnight King

Despite his promise to consume everything and the rebels forces having been weakened by constant battles in the following months, Eparch remained in the safety of his citadel behind a layer of protective fog that would harm any intruder. Nephus grew impatient with the Kryptis rebels' and the Astral Ward's lack of progress against the loyalists while also growing worried about Eparch not having retaliated yet. By the time the Wayfinder visited the rebel headquarters, Nephus was having a heated debate with Frode about whether to wait for reinforcements or proceed against Zakiros to take the fight to Eparch even though Nephus was expecting some trick from Eparch if they did so. Peitha's arrival ended the debate for a moment only for Eparch's elite assassins to target her and forcing Nephus and his allies to defend her. After a successful defense, Peitha pointed out that she had sensed fear on the assassins' remains, suggesting that Eparch might not be as strong as he had led the rebels to believe. On Peitha's orders, the combined rebel and Astral Ward forces marched to the coliseum to begin the assault on Zakiros.

Fortifying the allied forces' position at the coliseum and receiving unexpected help from the wizards Dagda and Zojja, Nephus acted the part of Grand General and began issuing orders for separate teams to carry out their duties simultaneously to destroy the citadel's defenses while using the opportunity to divide and thus weaken the remaining loyalist defenders. As Frode and Peitha led the separate teams deeper into Eparch's lair, Nephus kept a contingent outside to secure the courtyard and protect their flanks in case loyalist reinforcements arrived.

With help from the Astral Ward reinforcements brought by the wizards Dagda and Zojja, the strike team successfully penetrated into the Spire of Dreams where the Kryptis houses of old had convened prior to Eparch's tyranny. While there, they witnessed another grand entrance from Eparch: this time, however, the Midnight King had been consumed by his hunger and had taken on a massive monstrous form, using his power amassed over the centuries to battle the intruders while summoning zealous reinforcements via rifts. After a lengthy battle, the rebels succeeded in drawing out many of Eparch's consumed essences by attacking his hardened carapace as well as damaging him from the inside when he tried to devour some of his opponents. Drained, the Midnight King reverted to his humanoid form and retreated up his central tower to his throne while muttering that he needed even more power.

Wasting no time, Peitha chose to pursue the weakened Eparch despite sensing his army still lying in wait within the citadel, and Nephus supported her decision. The team came to the realization that Eparch might still triumph if his army came to assist him, so the strike team split up: Dagda and Frode would lead most of the assault force to secure Zakiros and cover the flanks and, if the battle ended up badly, evacuate as many Kryptis rebels to Tyria to avoid the vengeful Midnight King's wrath. Meanwhile, Peitha led the Wayfinder, Nephus, Ramses, and Arina to finish the fight or die trying.

While ascending the tower, the group came across Kryptis memories that revealed details about both the Midnight King's past as well as the sensations of his many victims. They suddenly sensed a change in Eparch's army ahead and hurried onward, only to find themselves in a reliquary room where they learned the grim truth: there was no army left as countless number of Kryptis had been sacrificed and turned into essence-filled relics to feed the king's hunger as he had consumed them just moments before to recover his lost strength.

As the group reached the Midnight Throne, Eparch lay in wait, accompanied by his twin commanders, General Alkaeus and General Zantharon, and some of the remaining loyalists. The Midnight King was no longer willing to negotiate terms: he demanded nothing less than Peitha's life as compensation for the rebellion. Instead of submitting, however, Peitha insulted both Eparch and the late Labris by claiming that the latter had been the real strategist of Eparch's campaign and had died for nothing. Snarling in rage at the insult to his wife and queen, Eparch's control snapped. Hungry for even more power, he shockingly consumed his own general, Alkaeus, in blind fury. Zantharon, seeing his own brother murdered and absorbed by the king he had sworn fealty to, turned against Eparch. The throne room erupted, loyalists shouting accusations and changing sides as Eparch himself attacked indiscriminately.

Despite facing not only Peitha's rebels but Zantharon's turncoats, Eparch was practically invincible. Fast as the attackers could hurt the Midnight King, the strength of the Kryptis essence healed him faster. Just before Eparch could triumph, a portal ripped open, and Isgarren stepped through. The wizard and the Midnight King faced each other for the first time in centuries as the battle raged around them. Eparch continued exuding control due to his empowered state, however; even Isgarren could not harm him now by himself. To even the odds, the wizard lord freed Peitha's forces from Eparch's spell and urged her to join her power with his while also telling the Wayfinder to use the Heart of the Obscure to further boost their joint attack. The resulting blast of magic was strong enough to prevent the Midnight King from healing himself.

Through their combined efforts, Eparch finally fell. In his last moments, the king of the Kryptis conceded that Peitha would rule. He acknowledged that his niece would take the throne, that she would be the Midnight King. Knowing his fate was sealed, Eparch did not scream in defiance; he instead urged Peitha to consume him, to take his power and use it, as he had, to lead the Kryptis from a position of strength, reminding her that the Kryptis had to be predators or else they would become prey and be destroyed. Peitha lifted Eparch into the air, and then, in a display of both strength and willpower against expectations, she blasted him into pieces instead of consuming his essence to empower herself, stating that this strength had never been Eparch's to give and she would not rule the same way as he had.

Nephus was angry with Isgarren for only showing up at the last possible moment when his survival was all but assured. When the Seer countered the general's accusation by stating that he never intended to risk anything for the Kryptis and was willing to sacrifice them to rid both worlds of Eparch if needed, Nephus coldly stated that it would be best if the two of them never ended up standing on the opposite sides of the battlefield. As emissaries of various Kryptis houses began appearing in the throne room, Nephus reassured the Wayfinder that they had come to pay their respects to their new king and would not become an immediate threat as the power vacuums would be filled in the wake of the civil war that had cost many Kryptis lives on both sides.

Nephus, Ramses, and Zantharon accompanied Peitha to the Wizard's Tower where Isgarren formally acknowledged Peitha as the new Midnight King while making her and Nephus agree to stop the Kryptis invasions and allow a group of Astral Ward to remain in Nayos indefinitely and hunt down remaining Eparch loyalists to ensure that the now atoning Kryptis would keep their word. In subsequent conversations, Nephus answered the Wayfinder's lingering questions, assuring them that he had no desire for the Midnight Throne and preferred his role as a general and an advisor as he had once been. The general was pragmatic about Zantharon's changing allegiance and the reason for sparing him despite the latter's crimes as Zantharon could use his influence to help sway some of the remaining loyalists to Peitha's side. Nephus also comforted the Wayfinder by saying that as long as he drew breath, he would not allow another war between Nayos and Tyria.

Locations

Horn of Maguuma

• Inner Nayos
  • Nyedra, Dreamer's Sanctum (only during related events)
  • Spire of Dreams (only during related events)

Story involvement

Secrets of the Obscure story

• The Realm of Dreams
  • Forced Hand
  • Eventide's March
• The Midnight King
  • Desperate Measures
  • The Eleventh Hour
  • Sovereign of Nayos

Event involvement

Into the Spider's Lair

[Group Event] Clear the malignant fog protecting Zakiros (80)

[Group Event] Disable Zakiros's extractor towers (80)

[Group Event] Defeat Eparch, the Consumed King (80)

Combat abilities

Abilities

Effects

Related achievements

• The Realm of Dreams: Your Majesty — Kneel with Nephus to show your loyalty. (1)
• The Midnight King: Talk of the Tower — Check in with all your friends and allies in the Wizard's Tower. (3)

Trivia

• Nephus is voiced by Rick Wasserman.