Nezarec, Final God of Pain

Nezarec, Final God of Pain is a Disciple of the Witness. An ancient being with powerful psychic abilities, Nezarec relishes the fear and pain experienced by other sentient beings, and is known to induce Nightmares in his victims in order to feed on their fear. Nezarec was known to several civilizations who feared and even worshipped him, including the pre-Cabal Psions and pre-Golden Age Humanity.

Nezarec initially led the Black Fleet in its assault on Earth during the Collapse, claiming The Veil on behalf of The Witness. He was betrayed by Savathûn, the Witch Queen, who killed Nezarec and cursed his remains, leaving him entombed in his own Pyramid on the Moon. Despite his physical death, echoes of his consciousness continued to persist across the system. His remains were later found by Fallen scavengers, who would split Nezarec's corpse into pieces that were distributed amongst them as "relics" and talismans. These pieces would be gathered centuries later by two parties: The Guardians of the Last City and Eramis, Kell of Darkness of the House of Salvation in Season of Plunder. The original Fallen raiding party would leave Nezarec's head inside the Lunar Pyramid. This lead to the Witness later coming into the possession of Nezarec's head and encased his remains in a sarcophagus located on the The Witness' Pyramid.

Nezarec would become active again in the fallout of The Traveler's attack on The Witness' Pyramid, where he haunted the citizens of Neomuna in the CloudArk. Serving as the final boss of the Root of Nightmares raid, he would fully resurrect via a newly grown Tree of Silver Wings with both Light and Darkness powers, only to be defeated once more by the Guardians during their conquest of the Pyramid.

Pre-Golden Age
"He is that which is end. That which covets sin. The final god of pain—the purest light, the darkest hour. And He shall rise again."

- Passage from "Of Hated Nezarec

Hailing from an unknown species, Nezarec was one of the few chosen to be elevated as a member the Witness' chosen Disciples, to which he was given a Glaive by Rhulk as a gift. Both feared and worshipped as a fiend, the titular Final God of Pain terrorized countless races with his imposing psionic ability to infect the minds and dreams of his victims; giving them Nightmares and feeding upon their fear and screams as his influence was felt across the stars.

Nezarec's demonic presence would be felt across several races including the ancient Psions, whom revered him as a deity at one point in their pre-Cabal history. Although their beliefs were brutally subjugated in the present day, a cult of Psions would continue to honor Nezarec by offering him those he touched mentally as sacrifices such as the case of Acasia's partner. In the cover of night, Nezarec would personally visit the sleeping pair under the vestige of Darkness he manifests in and physically touched the sleeping Psion beside Acasia before disappearing. Minutes later, his Psion supplicants would enter Acasia's home and restrain the pair as they offered her partner to be sacrificed in his honor. Sometime later, his followers convened in ritualistic ceremony as Acasia's partner is mentally tortured at the mercy of Nezarec as he rises from his seat, levitating off the ground, and dark tendrils attach themselves to his shadow to siphon his power; all while Acasia herself having joined their ranks as they unified in pained wails of Nezarec's symphony.

Before the Golden Age, Nezarec's psionic campaign of terror was also pervasive amongst the minds of Humanity. He became the subject in a pre-Golden Age text titled, "Of Hated Nezarec"; which states that he will one day rise again, implying that he is either dead, dormant, or in hiding at the time of writing. Over time the origin and age of this text became lost after the Collapse, but the leather-bound tome containing Nezarec's darkest secrets survived in the possession of a Human family that worshipped the latter and given some of his power in return for their service.

Collapse
Upon chasing The Traveler to the Sol System, Nezarec led the Black Fleet in its first invasion against humanity at the end of their Golden Age; accompanied by the Hive lead under Savathûn, the Witch Queen. Carrying with them was The Veil, a primordial artifact of Darkness origin meant to link with The Traveler and assure in the Witness's endgame. At the height of their conquest, however, Nezarec was betrayed by Savathûn, who fought for possession of the Veil and dealt a fatal blow to the disciple that unleashed a psychic echo piercing every corner of his Pyramid ship. Nezarec dragged himself forward and opens his psychic mind to join the trillions of consciousnesses mended together in Darkness and death, only for him to be denied as the Witch cursed his consciousness to remain bound to his physical remains. His last thoughts were of hatred for the Witch Queen as she stole the Veil away to Neptune and hid it from the Witness. His Pyramid ship would crash land onto the surface of the Moon following the Traveler's attack, entombing Nezarec beneath the lunar surface in perpetual dormancy.

Legacy
Following the Collapse, Nezarec's corpse had remain undisturbed within his own Pyramid, which was kept hidden by the local Hive out of overwhelming fear of the former disciple. Inaaks, the then-Kell of the House of Wolves, uncovers his derelict ship during an spelunking expedition despite the overwhelming Hive forces picking off her raid party. Inside, Inaaks and her fellow Fallen scavengers determined that Nezarec's body was a source of great power. They split his body into pieces, which were distributed as morbid talismans to harvest his dark powers. Those pieces were later stored within relics and scattered across the solar system.

Despite the absence of their god, the impact of Nezarec's psychic influence continued to persist in the form of Mykel and his family for years through the Dark Age, with every new generation tested for loyalty and worthiness. On the night of his 18th birthday, Mykel's father woke his son from a deep slumber filled with the horrors of Nezarec's design. Despite his fears, Mykel was taught not fear the Nightmares as he would be put to the test by extracting the fear of a captive Eliksni, which he presumably succeeded much to Nezarec's favor. Later in his adulthood, Mykel would create the Acolytes of Nezarec by directing the God of Pain's influence towards his ideal victims. Those who would join included prior victims of his such as Psion Acasia, a former Titan named Briar and the Eliksni called Koraxis.

At one point, The Drifter was contracted to retrieve a relic of Nezarec from the Acolytes at the titular "Fourth Tomb of Nezarec" in Jovian space. Though he was accosted by both an unknown individual (implied to be Nessa) and Nezarec's own powers, he escaped unharmed with the artifact in hand.

Season of Plunder
During the season's events, Eramis, Kell of Darkness sought to collect all the relics under the order of The Witness. Through her research on these relics, Eido, Daughter of Misraaks discovered a reference to the "Curse of Nezarec" in an ancient dirge. The curse is alleged to drain the life of the user, though its purpose is also unknown.

Ultimately, the Guardians gathered the majority of the pieces of Nezarec before Eramis. Mithrax was able to use them to create something useful: a special brew which was given to a comatose Osiris in the hopes that it would rouse him from his state. The brew worked as hoped, leading Osiris to finally awaken from his slumber.

Lightfall
During the campaign of Lightfall, Neomuna Civil News reports the Neomuni are experiencing widespread nightmares. The report goes on to state that one name has appeared in all of these nightmares; Nezarec. The reports also speculate on the connections between Nezarec and the Psions in their psychic abilities. These claims would later be confirmed during the Hypernet Current Strike. A mysterious voice said it would claim a part of Vex space for its own, and called itself Nezarec. In addition the Disciple can also occasionally be heard by The Guardian while they're patrolling Neomuna, particularly in Maya's Retreat and the Thrilladrome Lost Sector. Whilst either Nezarec's Whisper or Nezarec's Sin is equipped these whispers become decipherable and Nezarec will taunt them further during the Terminal Overload public event.

Additionally, a connection between Nezarec and the Tormentors may exist, as multiple Tormentors named Imprints of Nezarec are fought both during the Lightfall campaign and during the exotic quest, The Final Strand. When first encountered, Osiris claims that Tormentors are "The fruits of an unholy alliance between the Witness and Calus.",, however Quinn Laghari later questions if they are the same species as Nezarec or are clones made by the Witness. If these are clones of Nezarec created by the Witness, it is likely it was made possible using Calus' cloning technology. This connection has yet to be explored further.

Root of Nightmares
During the battle between the Traveler and the Witness in Earth's orbit, the Traveler struck the Witness' Pyramid with a terraforming beam. This beam deformed the surface of the Pyramid, causing large growths of ostensibly benign paracausal flora to grow within the structure of the ship. A fireteam of six Guardians was assembled to investigate the now-derelict ship. Upon exploration of the interior, the team discovered a large sarcophagus containing the disembodied head of Nezarec. This head is revealed to be the only piece of Nezarec Eramis managed to acquire for the Witness after the Guardian's retrieval of the other pieces in Season of Plunder.

Nezarec had unwittingly been resurrected by the Traveler's terraforming power and conversed with the fireteam, goading them on throughout the raid. Amongst other things, Nezarec talked about aspects of themselves, the nature of terror and how he wished to express his newfound paracausal powers. These powers appear to have been augmented by the terraforming beam of Light that the Traveler shot, causing an immensely large growth to pierce the sarcophagus of Nezarec.

The fireteam traveled throughout the shattered interior of the Pyramid, fighting the Shadow Legion in an effort to feed paracausal energy into the sarcophagus containing Nezarec. When enough energy was fed into the coffin, large contractions of Resonant energy began to pulse from the coffin, threatening the fireteam with extermination if they failed to attune with it. Nezarec's rebirth was complete.

With the fireteam returning to the sarcophagus, Nezarec burst forth from the amber-like encasement, displaying a newly grown body fed on the Light and Darkness supplied by the Guardians. He reveled in his newly-found powers, controlling both Light and Dark, wishing to hear the screams of terror of the fireteam as he killed them. The Guardians, however, proved too strong for his newly born state and he was destroyed, exploding in much the same fashion as Rhulk, Calus and the Tormentors had met their ends. Nezarec reminded the fireteam that even though he had expired, he would always be present in their memories and nightmares, an inescapable impression upon the Universe.

Trivia

 * Nezarec's true nature as a Disciple remained largely mysterious until Season of Plunder, with most information coming from the lore entry for the Exotic Warlock helmet Nezarec's Sin and the Glaive Nezarec's Whisper. It is also implied that Nezarec is the one speaking in the description of the Delicate Tomb Exotic Fusion Rifle.
 * The revelation that Psions once worshipped Nezarec may explain the design of the Exotic helmet Nezarec's Sin, which strongly resembles the helmets worn by many Psions. The helmet itself is similar to Nezarec's actual head and facial structure, with his horns being more vertically aligned in contrast.
 * The Nightmare Harvester seasonal artifact from Season of the Haunted can summon a scythe, alluding to the connection between the Nightmares and Nezarec, who also wields a scythe.
 * Nezarec has seven eyes, perhaps a nod to Bungie's recurring use of the number seven in their games.
 * According to lead Bungie concept artist Tobias Kwan, Nezarec's heterochromia is caused by him being a "chimeric fusion"; it is unknown to what degree this description applies to in-game canon.

List of appearances

 * Destiny 2
 * Forsaken
 * The Witch Queen
 * Season of the Haunted
 * Season of Plunder
 * Season of the Seraph
 * Lightfall
 * Season of Defiance