En Sabah Nur (Earth-1010)

{{Character Template
 * Quote                  = Peace does nothing to test -- to INCREASE -- mutants' strength. To force them to evolve into the strong.
 * Speaker                = Apocalypse


 * Image                  = Apocalypse.png
 * ImageSize              = 250px
 * RealName               = En Sabah Nur
 * CurrentAlias           = Apocalypse
 * Aliases                = Eternal One, High Lord, Eternal Pharaoh, Set, Huitzilopochtli, Sauru, Kali-Ma, Elohim, Shem, Ra, Krishna, Yahweh, The First One, The Savior, The Eighth Apocalypse, Conquest, The First Mutant, Death, Beast-child
 * Identity               = Public
 * Alignment              = Bad
 * Affiliation            = Apocalypse's Horsemen; formerly Clan Akkaba, Sandstormers, Dark Riders
 * Relatives              = Baal (adoptive father, deceased);
 * Universe               = Earth-1010
 * BaseOfOperations       = Mobile


 * Gender                 = Male
 * Height                 = 7'0"
 * Height2                = (Usually); Variable
 * Weight                 = 725 lbs
 * Weight2                = (Variable)
 * Eyes                   = Red
 * Hair                   = Black
 * Hair2                  = (formerly bald)
 * UnusualSkinColour      = Grey
 * UnusualFeatures        = Appears metallic at times, extensive disheveled metallic blue lips, blue markings on head, massive in natural form
 * CharRef                =


 * Citizenship            = Egyptian
 * MaritalStatus          = Single
 * Occupation             = Warlord, Conqueror, Scientist
 * Education              = Trained by Baal and the Sandstormers.


 * Origin                 = Mutant, possibly External
 * PlaceOfBirth           = Akkaba, Egypt
 * Creators               = Bob Layton; Louise Simonson; Jackson Guice
 * First                  = TBA


 * HistoryText            =

The First Morning Light
En Sabah Nur was born nearly five thousand years ago in a lone settlement on the very edge of the Amentet and the very edge of the Valley of the Kings, in ancient Egypt, as a member of a tribe in Akkaba. Even as an infant, the child inspired fear, being born with gray skin and blue lines running across his lips and face. Ugly and malformed, the infant was abandoned by the tribe, to die in the harsh desert sun. However, out of the desert, the Sandstormers, a roving band of feared nomadic raiders, slaughtered the citizens of Akkaba. Their leader, Baal of the Crimson Sands, found the infant crying and recognized the potential power in the child. Baal named the infant En Sabah Nur, literally meaning "The First Morning Holy Light", and raised him as his own son.

Survival of the Fittest
As Nur grew, he surpassed the other tribesmen in intelligence and strength. Everyone in the tribe, except for Baal, hated and feared Nur for his inhuman looks and great abilities. Nur did not understand their fear, but hardened his heart against it. Moreover, Nur believed in the principle that Baal and the tribe lived by, that only the fittest, toughest, most ruthless and pitiless, tested by hardship, would, and should, survive. At this time Egypt was ruled by Pharaoh Rama-Tut. On the day of his tribal rite of passage into manhood, the seventeen-year-old Nur killed three armed warriors of the tribe using only his bare hands and Baal explained to him that Rama-Tut was no god, as most believed, but a man, who had arrived in a sphinx. Baal brought the young Nur to a sacred cave, whose entrance became blocked by a cave-in, trapping them underground. After a week of wandering without food or water, they found the remnants of Rama-Tut's time ship, within an underground Egyptian tomb. Baal told Nur that he believed him to be a conqueror, whose coming was foretold in ancient prophecies, and that Nur was destined to overthrow Rama-Tut. After Baal died from lack of nourishment, Nur, whose mutant physiology kept him alive, vowed to take vengeance on Rama-Tut and claim his destiny. Four weeks later, Nur finally made his way back to the surface and was found by Logo, the grand vizier of Rama-Tut, who gave him water and hid him as a slave. Nur was determined to kill both Rama-Tut and his warlord, Ozymandias, for their part in Baal's death.

Enslaved and Alone
While a slave, Nur kept his disfigured lips constantly covered and Nephri, sister of Ozymandias, became attracted to the mysterious slave. Eventually, Nur had a vision of the Egyptian death god, Seth, who urged him to become a conqueror and Nur was thrown into a pit of snakes, but survived when his superhuman powers activated. Nur grew in size and strength and was attacked, by guards, but defeated them all.

From Slave to Conqueror
The Pharaoh finally came face to face with Nur. In actuality, Rama-Tut was a time traveler from the far future, who would later become known as Kang the Conqueror. Tut knew that Apocalypse, one of the most powerful mutants who ever lived and the one who was destined to rule the world, had been born in ancient Egypt. Hence, Rama-Tut had gone back in time to find Apocalypse as a child, raise him, and thereby become the master of the most powerful being on the planet. Rama-Tut offered to make Nur his heir, if he would swear his loyalty. At that time, Nur revealed his face to Nephri, who rejected him for his appearance. Rama-Tut then tried to kill Nur, when he refused. Nur was then shot, by the Pharaoh and was again left to die, but survived with the sudden emergence of his mutant immortality and mass shifting. With his powers flaring, Nur defeated Ozymandias and Rama-Tut himself, who finally escaped back into the future, eventually to take on the identity of Kang. Nur attacked Ozymandias and he was thrown into the technology on Tut's Sphinx, which turned him into a sand-like being, who could see the future almost right before it happened and would record Nur's accomplishments throughout time, as his scribe. Nur then claimed Tut's sphinx.

Apocalypse later joined forces with the Brotherhood of the Shield to successfully fend off a Brood invasion. Were also present Imhotep and Khonshu.

Clan Akkaba and Riders of the Dark
When Nur fully realized his power and defeated the Pharaoh and his army, Egypt entered a new age, one in which his children walked among them. Offspring of Nur received a portion of his power, those closest related having near identical abilities. Nur forged his clan, now called Clan Akkaba after his birthplace and those who had abandoned and left him to die. During this time, the site of Akkaba reached somewhat of a renaissance as great monuments were erected there, whether by Nur, his descendants, or by the new Pharaoh no one knew. Egypt peaked, and so too did the clan’s influence on the world. With attacks by Alexander the Great and his Persian armies, Nur and his kin fought valiantly in a battle he would never forget. This battle helped Nur winnow out the weak in his clan and, as Egypt became nothing but a distant memory to the clan’s influence, Nur moved on to Ancient Rome. Before leaving, Nur revisited Nephri, now an ancient Egyptian Queen, and mocked her dying beauty, as he was still as he had been years before.

From then on, Nur plotted the conquest of the planet, through bringing about wars and conflict, in which the strong would defeat and destroy the weak. Over the centuries, Nur was worshipped by many civilizations, under a variety of names. Nur also founded a group of fanatics devoted to the Darwinian ideals that the strong ("fit") should inherit the Earth and the weak ("unfit") should be culled, named the Riders of the Dark.

The Celestial Ship
Centuries later, in 1150 A.D. in the Ho-Lo Shan Mountains of Northern Mongolia, China, Nur heard of a ruler, who was powered by an immense alien Ship which crashed, and sought him out as another immortal. In a confrontation, Nur slew all of Garbha-Hsien's guards. Garbha-Hsien then sought to humble his fellow 'forever-walker', by revealing the secret titanic vessel. Having had previous experience with futuristic technology, Nur attacked Garbha-Hsien and left the other immortal for dead. Not understanding how to kill an immortal, Garbha-Hsien survived and fled. After striking down Garbha-Hsien, Nur entered the Ship and lived on it for many years, not fully understanding how to communicate with it or control it. Using old hieroglyphs, Nur built a large Sphinx around the Ship, on his own, and began to hear a voice inside of his head. The voice belonged to the Celestial, Eson the Searcher, who spoke through telepathy and called Nur Apocalypse. Eson presented Nur with the proposition to use the technology on Ship to shape the destiny of the world, or simply leave and never remember anything. Nur accepted and Eson stated that one day, maybe in centuries or millennia, the Celestials would come for payments for their gifts. Shortly after finding the Ship, Nur and his Riders of the Dark were constantly attacked, by a young warrior with a sword and shield calling himself the Traveler.

Thor faced off with En Sabah Nur. He is defeated. Seeking revenge, Thor blessed Jarnbjorn with his own blood to imbue it with the power to pierce Celestial armor.

Immortality
After years of sending assassins and battling the Traveler, Nur severed Traveler's left cybernetic arm and, during the confusion, the Traveler pulled a gun and shot him in the head. After reattaching his techno-organic arm, Traveler was accepted as the new leader of the Riders of the Dark, but declined. Traveler turned to Ozymandias and instructed him to remember that there will always be someone smarter and stronger around and that being fit to survive means to have the responsibility to help those who are not. Unaware to the Traveler, his techno-organic infected blood mixed with Nur's, as he wiped Nur's blood on Ozymandias. Ozymandias had Nur's dead body brought to the alien Ship, hoping that its technology could heal him, and Traveler arrived, to ambush a caravan of advanced technology. Traveler explained to Ozymandias that the Ship was actually a Celestial transport for a highly advanced alien race, a sentient exploratory device, and entered the ship. Inside, Traveler learned that his blood, mixed with the Techno-Organic Virus, and Nur's resurrected Nur and, infected with the virus, allowed Nur to understand Ship. Nur was transformed and enhanced by Celestial technology, becoming one of the most powerful beings who would ever live, now possessing the ability of total control over the molecular structure of his body. Angry at the revelation, Traveler told Nur that if he was responsible for his immortality, he would make Nur spend eternity far away from there and sent both Ship and its passenger far into space. Over the next few centuries, Ship's sentience slowly evolved and Nur noticed it, but enslaved it, telling Ship that he had created it. After gaining so much power, Nur also began to take long slumbers in Ship, to refuel his powers, and began to call himself Apocalypse.

Four Horsemen
Sometime during the fifteenth century, Nur had already created his Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, Pestilence, Famine, War, and Death, and rode among them as well, leading an army of Riders of the Dark. This army was so strong and powerful that some were led to believe that they were just a myth, to scare soldiers before their first battle.

12th century
During the Crusades in the 12th century, the crusader Bennet du Paris sought-out the legendary Tower of Power, the domain of the mythic "Eternal Pharaoh" in Akkaba. After traveling for hours through violent sandstorms, Paris finally collapsed and a voice spoke to him, asking if he was willing to risk everything to become one of the strong. Paris was then tested and his mutant powers manifested for the first time. Proving himself strong, Paris disappeared from the spot. Nur had teleported Paris on his Ship and transformed him into Exodus. After capturing the time-traveling Sersi and the Black Knight, Eobar Garrington, who was being controlled by the time-traveling Black Knight, Dane Whitman, Nur commanded Exodus to destroy the Black Knight. Exodus refused and turned on Nur, calling him a "false god". However, Exodus was no match for Nur and Nur stripped Exodus of his power and sealed him away in a crypt in the Swiss Alps, trapped in a coma like state with a curse preventing Exodus from leaving, yet others were allowed to come and go as they pleased.

15th century
During 1459, in Romania, the Horsemen of War led the Riders of the Dark and, single-handedly, defeated Vlad the Impaler and his army. Nur personally bested Vlad in single combat, an event which led to Vlad becoming the immortal vampire, Dracula.

Mister Sinister
Nur was later seen in 1859, Victorian England, after being awoke from centuries of hibernation in an underground chamber, by the Marauders, and ordered them to take him to their leader, Dr. Nathaniel Essex. Nur offered to transform Essex into a long-lived superhuman being himself, to give him the time to further his research, but at a cost: his servitude. Left with the choice of continuing his work or his wife shunning him, Dr. Essex allied himself with Nur. Dr. Essex explained to Nur that he was the first born in, what Dr. Essex believed, would be a great mutation in the human race. After taking Nur to the Hellfire Club, Nur demonstrated his power before the men and explained that Dr. Essex's theories of mutation were more near than he believed. After the death of his wife and her shunning him, Dr. Essex agreed to Nur's offer and was ordered to create a plague to destroy the weak of the world, as Nur's first prelate, Pestilence. Apocalypse painfully transformed Dr. Essex into an ageless being of extraordinary pallor, with telekinesis in his alien Ship, asking him to shed his past name and choose another. With his new abilities and dispassionate outlook, Dr. Essex took the new name, "Sinister", Rebecca Essex's last words to him.

Nur had plans to assassinate Britain's Queen and Prime Minister and almost succeeded. Returning to Nur's Ship, Nur demanded to know why the plague was not complete and Mr. Sinister stated that he manipulated the plague, so that it would affect only Nur himself, but his immune system quickly adapted to it. Nur asked why and Mr. Sinister replied that cruelty for no purpose was ignorance and ignorance was the greatest enemy of science. As Nur began to return to his hibernation, he stated that Sinister's defiance was a sign of his strength, but it would not be tolerated again. Nur warned Sinister to never forget who has the true power and, when he returns, it will be the dawn of the Age of Apocalypse and Sinister will be his servant.

Dracula
In 1897, Dracula, now a immortal vampire warlord, discovered the existence of Clan Akkaba and it's relation to En Sabah Nur. Dracula then began a vengeful campaign against Clan Akkaba, slaughtering many before Abraham van Helsing determined he was involved. When the clan's leader, Hamilton Slade, disappeared, they were left with no choice but to summon their lord. The clan awoke Apocalypse, in order to deal with the threat of Dracula. Unknown to the members of the clan, Dracula was turning members of Clan Akkaba into vampires in order to battle Apocalypse as revenge for his earlier defeat and the way the Dark Lord had previously shamed him.

Apocalypse, as punishment for being so weak in requesting a boon from him, killed one of the clan's leaders. After meeting, and initially being mistaken as a vampire by, van Helsing, Apocalypse joined him, Jack Starsmore, Frederick Slade, and Ozymandias, to combat Dracula and the undead members of Clan Akkaba. Apocalypse and his group were at first overwhelmed by the vampires, but eventually emerged victorious, thanks to Frederick and Jack. Dracula was impaled with his own limbs and decapitated by Apocalypse. Apocalypse refused to follow van Helsing's "superstitious" rituals to permanently destroy the vampire, leaving the body. He then went back into hibernation.

Back in 1899 in England, Sinister helped awaken Apocalypse from his slumber. Apocalypse thanked him for his servitude over the years and says that out of all the servants, Sinister is the most loyal. Sinister secretly was bidding his time for the right moment to stop Apocalypse himself. He decided this is not the time and says that he lives only to serve Apocalypse. Apocalypse even offered him a normal life again and Sinister said that his life is his science.He then went back into hibernation.


 * Powers                 = Apocalypse has constantly evolved to survive, increasing his powers over the centuries. His original ability to control his molecular structure was augmented by Celestial armor once he entered the Ship and became the Evolutionary Caretaker. He was also exposed to at least two different techno-organic viruses over the years, which he assimilated and made his own.


 * Immortality: Apocalypse's original body was immortal; even before being modified by the Celestial ship, he had lived for thousands of years. Apocalypse can enter a coma-like state of suspended animation during which he may recover from any wounds with the assistance of his Celestial technology.
 * Superhuman Strength: Apocalypse possesses superhuman strength that he can further increase by drawing upon outside energy sources; Apocalypse is above the "class 100" limit.
 * Superhuman Speed: He is able to speed up his reflexes and reaction time.
 * Nigh-Invulnerability: Apocalypse is highly resistant to injury. With the Celestial modifications, this resistance to harm is amplified.
 * Teleportation: Apocalypse can teleport himself and others around vast distances across the planet. The ability seems to be artificial, linked to the Celestial technology bio-mechanically incorporated into his body, headquarters, and equipment, and so is not always available to him.
 * Psionic Manipulation: At various times Apocalypse has demonstrated differing but vast levels of mental capacity.
 * Telekinesis: Apocalypse possesses telekinetic abilities enabling him to levitate himself or others by sheer force of will and manipulate living beings, inanimate objects and to some extent energy psionically. He can “lift” far in excess of 100+ tons of weight, showcasing as he lifts his own palace with his mind.
 * Flight: Apocalypse can enable himself to fly, by either transforming his arms into wings, jets, or through telekinetic use. He can achieve supersonic velocity in this manner.
 * Telepathy: Apocalypse has shown powerful telepathic abilities enabling him a host of unique powerful facilities like reading minds, absorbing information and projecting his thoughts to others.
 * Bio-Molecular Alteration: Apocalypse has control over the molecular structure of his body and can alter it at will. This means he can adapt his molecular structure to adversity. Apocalypse can perform the following feats:
 * Body Manipulation: Apocalypse's entire body can be reshaped at will. He can alter his appearance, allow his body to become extremely malleable, maintain his full dexterity, and elongate his body or limbs. Apocalypse can even assume an outwardly normal human form for disguise if he chooses.
 * Size Alteration: Apocalypse is able to change his size at will; he can increase or decrease the size of his body by taking on additional mass or ridding of it from a presumably extra-dimensional source.
 * Self-Power Bestowal: Apocalypse can, due to having total control over his molecular structure, generate a number of different superhuman abilities within himself. These initial changes were triggered by adversity, as Apocalypse literally evolved new skills to cope with his environment. Measuring this ability over time is difficult, since the difference between self-induced new mutant abilities and Celestial technology incorporated into his bio-mechanical body is hard to spot.
 * Energy Manipulation: Apocalypse seems to have a range of energy harnessing and projecting capabilities, either naturally derived or based on Celestial technology built into his physical frame. These effects include but are not limited to:
 * Energy Blasts: He has the ability to project massive energy blasts of destructive force from anywhere on his person. Apocalypse can also expel full body energy waves from his entirety.
 * Energy Absorption: Ability to absorb energy from outside sources to augment the levels of both his strength and power.
 * Technopathy: Apocalypse is able to directly interface with various technologies he has at his disposal. This is due to a combination of the Celestial armor built into his physical body and the Techno-Organic Viruses he is host for.
 * Blood of Apocalypse: Apocalypse's techno-organic blood has many unique properties. With only a drop of his blood into a vat of organs, blood, etc. the virus can rewrite the genetic code of the material within to form a new body for Apocalypse.


 * Abilities              =  * Super-Genius Intelligence: Apocalypse is an extraordinary genius, and has knowledge of certain areas of biology, primarily genetic engineering and mutation, and technology that are far in advance of contemporary science and technology. This was not merely a result of his exposure to alien technology, as he was able to make significant new advances beyond the alien materials to which he was exposed.
 * Omnilingual: En Sabah Nur is fluent in all of human language from across history including Celestial.


 * Strength               = Variable; Ability to tap into outside power sources makes his strength level virtually incalculable.


 * Equipment              = Several of Apocalypse's bases have a rejuvenation chamber. Apparently Celestial technology capable of manipulating the genes of mutants giving them altogether new abilities or augmenting the ones they already possess. (The process seemingly has the effect of warping the minds of the subjects more to Apocalypse's way of thinking).
 * Transportation         = Personal teleportation device. Various Celestial-tech based ships.
 * Weapons                = Assuming various Celestial-tech based weaponry.

}}
 * Notes                  =
 * Trivia                 =
 * Links                  =