Nerubian

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The Nerubians are an ancient race of intelligent insectoids native to Northrend within the kingdom of Azjol-Nerub.

History

At the ancient continent Kalimdor's center was a mysterious lake of incandescent energies, the Well of Eternity. It was the true heart of the world's magic and natural power. From this magical ether the Silithid were born. As the fallen Old God C'Thun recognized their appearance, he attempted to sunder the world that it once held in its unmerciful grasp. The Old God created avatars from the Silithid in its own image. These avatars were to be known as the Aqir.
The Aqir ruled the lands of the far west. These clever insectoids were greatly expansionistic and incredibly evil.

Nerubian as seen in Warcraft III

The Aqir were obsessed with eradicating all non-insect life from the fields of Kalimdor. So the two big Troll empires of Gurubashi and Amani found their common enemy in the third empire - the civilization of Azj'Aqir.

The trolls fought them for many thousands of years, but never succeeded in winning a true victory over the Aqir. Eventually, due to the troll's persistence, Azj'Aqir split in half as its citizens fled to separate colonies in the far northern and souther regions of the continent.

Two Aqir city-states emerged - Azjol-Nerub in the northern wastes, and Ahn'Qiraj in the southern desert.

So the new kingdom of Azjol-Nerub that stretched like a great web beneath the desolate glaciers of the land later known as Northrend.

Thousands of years later when the Lich King extended his influence over Northrend, the shadowy empire stood against his power. The ancient subterranean kingdom of Azjol-Nerub, sent their elite warrior-guard to attack Icecrown and end the Lich King's mad bid for dominance. Much to his frustration, Ner'zhul found that the evil Nerubians were immune not only to the undead plague, but to his telepathic domination as well.

The Nerubian spiderlords commanded vast forces and had an underground network that stretched nearly half the breadth of Northrend. Their hit-and-run tactics on the Lich King's strongholds stymied his efforts to root them out time after time. Ultimately Ner'zhul's war against the Nerubians was won by attrition. With the aid of the sinister Dreadlords and innumerable undead warriors, the Lich King invaded Azjol-Nerub and brought its subterranean temples crashing down upon the spider lords' heads.

Nerubians lived in or drew power from ziggurats in Warcraft III.

Though the Nerubians were immune to his plague, Ner'zhul's growing necromantic powers allowed him to raise the spider-warriors' corpses and bend them to his will. As a testament to their tenacity and fearlessness, Ner'zhul adopted the Nerubians' distinctive architectural style for his own fortresses and structures.

Though there are few pockets of Nerubian warriors left, they still seek to gain vengeance upon Ner’zhul and reclaim their subterranean kingdom. Groups of such can be found all over Northrend and even in the deepest reaches of their own city. A particularly large settlement is the Sundered Monolith.

File:Nurubian.jpg

An early concept of a Nerubian.

Mael Shelub, a living nerubian necromancer traveled south and worked with (but hated) the Forsaken Blarus Whitrick to defeat the Scourge in Silverpine Forest.Template:Cite

At Blizzcon 2007 the nerubians and the old gods were described as B.F.F.

Culture

According to Anub'arak, and as attested by many traps and contraptions in Azjol-Nerub dungeons, they were once good engineers.

Azjol-Nerub contained huge libraries of literature, philosophy, and arcane lore. Occasionally, the kingdom would kidnap humans and elves for experimentation.

Nerubian culture resembles the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian culture in terms of their architecture, though the ziggurats are of a completely different design.

Nerubians may place great store in ages, those at the Sundered Monolith gave Brann all of theirs, and they seemed impressed by his.

Society

Different types of Nerubian are referred to as castes with a life-long occupation and responsibility in society. Seers, for example, are relatively high-level Nerubians who act as priests and mages. Spider Lords are the rulers of the society in the same mold as the aristocracy of humanoid races.

The spider is the most common motif of the Nerubians, and they have appeared to have evolved partially into an arachnid race (eight limbs) from an insectoid race (six limbs). Despite the Nerubian cultural association with spiders (who reproduce through any male and any female), they reproduce as most insects do, through Queens.

Undead Nerubians are usually under control of the Scourge and are known as Crypt Fiends (in the case of most Nerubians) and Crypt Lords (undead Spiderlords). It is not known if Queens can be made undead, or what they are called if they can.

Languages

Nerubians speak Common and Nerubian. Nerubian is both a spoken and a sign language.Template:Cite Many nerubians are fluent in Common as well as their own tongue (a clicking rasping language).Template:Cite

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

It was stated by Blizzard that the Nerubian capital, Azjol-Nerub would be a zone, with a raid instance featuring an Old God. At Blizzcon in the brochure given to attendees the following was mentioned:

Yet the brooding evil of the fallen Nerubian empire and their malevolent sovereign have not forgotten Azeroth.

This suggests that they will be hostile to players, with "their malevolent sovereign" possibly referring to the Old God.

See also

• Origin of the races: The Evolution of the Aqir
• Silithid
• Aqir