Nezarec, Final God of Pain

Nezarec, Final God of Pain is a Disciple of the Witness. An ancient being with powerful psychic abilities, Nezarec is a sadist who 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. He was known to several civilizations who feared and even worshipped him, including the pre-Cabal Psions and pre-Golden Age Humanity.

Nezarec led the Black Fleet in its assault on Earth during the Collapse, carrying The Veil aboard his Pyramid. He was betrayed by Savathûn, who killed him 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 gifted with immense psionic abilities, Nezarec was elevated and transformed by the Witness into one of its chosen Disciples, empowering him with pure primordial Darkness. For his new position, he was also given a glaive by Rhulk as a gift. The titular final god of pain would become a force of terror across the known universe, with his psychic influence felt across countless races; the most particular being the ancient Psion race whom revered him as a deity in their pre-Cabal history. A hidden cult of Psions would continue to honor Nezarec in modern times, offering individuals with particularly powerful psychic abilities as sacrifices to him. One such unfortunate was Acasia's partner, who was taken from his home and tortured by the cult in order to feed Nezarec's hunger for pain and fear.

Nezarec's influence was also present amongst Humanity before their Golden Age. He was the subject of a pre-Golden Age text titled Of Hated Nezarec, A leather-bound tome containing apocrypha of the disciple which survived in the possession of a Human family into the Golden Age and post-Collapse eras.

Collapse
When the Black Fleet chased The Traveler to the Sol System, Nezarec led the assault against humanity, accompanied by Hive forces led by Savathûn, the Witch Queen. At some point during the invasion, Nezarec fought the ancient sea creature Ahsa on Titan, who was wounded but survived the encounter.

During the Collapse, Nezarec had possession of the Veil, the primordial source of all Darkness and of the Witness’ endgame to link with the Traveler; which was present aboard his Pyramid. Just when victory seemed assured, however, Nezarec was betrayed by Savathûn, who mortally wounded the Disciple. Nezarec attempted to project his consciousness into the Darkness and cheat 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.

Nezarec's Pyramid crashed into the surface of the Moon following his death, entombing his corpse beneath the lunar surface.

Legacy of Nightmares
For centuries following the Collapse, Nezarec's corpse remained undisturbed within his Pyramid. Eventually, Inaaks, the then-Kell of the House of Wolves, uncovered his derelict ship during a spelunking expedition despite the nearby Hive forces picking off her raid party. Inside, Inaaks and her fellow Fallen scavengers discovered Nezarec's corpse and determined that it was a source of great power. They split his body into pieces, which were distributed as morbid talismans. Over time, these pieces were stored within relics and scattered across the solar system, exchanging hands between Fallen pirates including Inaaks' son Misraaks. Possession of Nezarec's remains were not without consequence, however, as echoes of his consciousness continued to persist from them; to haunt and torment their bearers.

During the Dark Age, Mykel and his family continued to worship Nezarec and conduct rituals in his name, with every new generation tested for loyalty and worthiness. On the night of his 18th birthday, Mykel was awakened after a nightmare caused by Nezarec, leading one of his parents to induct him into the cult by torturing a captive Eliksni in order to "extract its fear". 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 Acasia, a former Titan named Briar and the Eliksni called Koraxis.

At one point, The Drifter was contracted to retrieve a relic of the disciple 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
After being released from her Stasis prison, Eramis, Kell of Darkness was tasked by the Witness with collecting the pieces of Nezarec's corpse. 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 to what purpose is 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 reported that the Neomuni were experiencing widespread nightmares, with one name appearing in all of them: Nezarec. The reports also speculated on the connections between Nezarec and the Psions.

These claims would later be confirmed during the Hypernet Current Strike, in which a mysterious voice said it would claim a part of Vex space for its own, and announced itself as Nezarec. In addition, the Disciple could also occasionally be heard by The Guardian while patrolling Neomuna, particularly in Maya's Retreat and the Thrilladrome Lost Sector. These whispers were ordinarily unintelligible, but whilst either Nezarec's Whisper or Nezarec's Sin was equipped they could be understood, and Nezarec would 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." Quinn Laghari later wonders if they are the same species as Nezarec or are clones made by the Witness, perhaps 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 his 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 the Deep