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, and claimed The Veil on behalf of The Witness. However, 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, including Koraxis, who would later become one of Nezarec's acolytes. The Fallen raiding party 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. However, the original Fallen raiding party would leave Nezarec's head inside the Lunar Pyramid. The Witness would later come 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

The description of Nezarec's Whisper implies that Nezarec was anointed by Rhulk as a new Disciple. The lore tab of the weapon reveals that Eris Morn found the blade within a chamber of The Lunar Pyramid, covered in centuries of dust. Alongside the cutscene in Season of Plunder, it suggests that Nezarec was the original owner of the Lunar Pyramid and the glaive.

Nezarec was described in a pre-Golden Age text titled, "Of Hated Nezarec". The text states that he will one day rise again, implying that he is either dead, dormant, or in hiding at the time of writing. The origin and age of this text is unknown, aside from that it predates the Golden Age.

According to Nezarec's voice lines upon his reappearance in the Vex Network, he was once worshipped by Psions as a deity. This suggests that similar to Rhulk, he may have infiltrated the society and culture of the Psions, amongst other species in addition to humanity.

Collapse
During the Collapse, Nezarec led the Black Fleet in its assault against humanity and managed to secure the Veil during the attack. He was then betrayed by Savathûn, who hid the Veil away on Neptune and defeated Nezarec, leading to his Pyramid becoming stranded on the Moon with his remains entombed inside.

Although Nezarec's physical form had been vanquished, his consciousness persisted, and he continued to psychically torment beings across the galaxy. One such unfortunate was the partner of the Psion Acasia, who was chosen by Nezarec and sacrificed by his fellow Psions.

City Age
A Human family carried Nezarec's religious teachings after the Collapse and was given some of his power in return. Their youngest son, Mykel, proceeded to create the Acolytes of Nezarec by directing the God of Pain's influence towards ideal victims.

The Drifter was contracted at some point to retrieve an artifact from a place called "The 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
It is revealed in Season of Plunder that Nezarec's corpse was discovered aboard the Lunar Pyramid by the Eliksni after their arrival in the Sol System. The Eliskni determined that Nezarec's body was a source of great power and divided the corpse into pieces, distributing them as morbid talismans. These pieces were later stored within relics and hidden across the solar system. 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 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 seemingly 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 exploring 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. However, the Guardians 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.

List of appearances

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