En Sabah Nur

"I was there to spark and fan the flame of man’s awakening. To spin the wheel of civilization. And when the forest would grow rank and needed clearing for new growth, I was there to set it ablaze."

―Apocalypse^[src]

En Sabah Nur was a class 5 mutant who was widely believed to be the world's first Mutant and throughout the millennia, became known as Apocalypse. Throughout his life, he had been worshiped as a god by humans.

Biography

The Ages of Apocalypse

Apocalypse united Egypt under his rule in 3100 BC, crushing all opposition. Clan Akkaba formed, pledging their lives to enforce his philosophy of survival of the fittest.

At some point he brought about the sinking of Atlantis.^[1]

X-Men: Days of Future Past

In Ancient Egypt, thousands of people bowed down to En Sabah Nur and chanted his name as he constructed a Pyramid using his abilities. In the background, the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse observe his power.

The Ages of Apocalypse

In 1900 BC, Apocalypse destroyed the Levantine cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In 1450 BC, the Minoans fell when Clan Akkaba retaliated after they broke their promise to embrace Apocalypse as their lord and master. In 1200 BC, Apocalypse sent Clan Akkaba to destroy the Mycenaean Greeks after they proclaimed him a false god.

Apocalypse came to the city-state of Athens around 430 BC, but was shunned by Athena's worshippers. Clan Akkaba unleashed a plague that killed over 75 thousand.

In 64 AD, learning the Emperor Nero had no intention of honoring Apocalypse as a god, Clan Akkaba revolted, causing the Great Fire of Rome. In 79 AD, Apocalypse came to Pompeii, and disgusted by the city's decadence, erupted Mount Vesuvius to destroy it.

Around 800 AD, the Maya civilization in North America collapsed due to his meddling.

X-Men: Apocalypse

In 3600 BC, people were bowing and chanting the name of En Sabah Nur. En Sabah Nur was brought into a pyramid by his four horsemen--Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence. A process is set for En Sabah Nur to transfer his consciousness into a younger body. As the sun hits the top of the pyramid, the process begins. However, rebels outside hurl pillars to kill En Sabah Nur and the horsemen. The Horsemen fight back but the pillars begin to destroy the pyramid. Death manages to form a barrier so that she will not be crushed along with En Sabah Nur. The process is complete but En Sabah Nur remains trapped under the rubble for thousands of years, dormant.

In 1983, Moira MacTaggert discovers a hidden chamber underground in Cairo that leads to where En Sabah Nur is. Due to the events of ten years earlier, with Erik Lehnsherr attacking the peace summit in Paris and being stopped by Mystique, cults had formed around the world worshiping mutants as gods. The cult that worshiped En Sabah Nur was chanting in his chamber causing him to be revived. The followers are buried by the explosion his revival caused but Moira escapes in time.

Later, the newly revived En Sabah Nur saves Ororo Munroe, a mutant pickpocket, from men who had caught her stealing. The men had threatened to cut off her hand. However, En Sabah Nur uses his powers to decapitate three men with sand and then traps the last man in a wall. Ororo invites him to her home, thanking him. He absorbs knowledge from the TV to catch himself up on the last few thousand years. Based on what he has seen, he declares that the world must be cleansed and that man has lost his way. He enhances Ororo's powers, making her stronger but also turning her hair white.

Later, he and Ororo/Storm teleport to East Berlin, looking for more powerful mutants. They come across Caliban, the black marketeer. Caliban draws his gun, but his gun and bullets are turned into dust by En Sabah Nur. As he comes closer, Caliban is defended by Psylocke, his bodyguard. Impressed with her power, En Sabah Nur enhances Psylocke's powers--recruiting her to his cause.

Psylocke leads En Sabah Nur and Storm to the next recruit, Angel, a mutant ex cage fighter. His wings had been damaged in battle by Kurt Wagner, so he couldn't fight anymore and resorted to alcoholism. They find Angel in an abandoned building drinking and blasting Metallica. En Sabah Nur enhances his powers, giving him techno organic wings with knives for feathers. Angel becomes one of his followers.

Erik Lehnsherr had lived under the alias of Henryk Gurzsky in Poland. After his co workers at the factory had discovered his powers, policemen had confronted him. In the confrontation, his wife and daughter were accidentally killed. He had killed the policemen and was about to do the same to his co workers for betraying him. Suddenly, En Sabah Nur appears with Storm, Angel, and Psylocke. After Erik says not to interfere with him killing the men, En Sabah Nur kills them for him. Telling Erik to come with him, he takes him to Auschwitz, where his powers first manifested. Erik's powers are enhanced and he destroys Auschwitz. He is then given a new helmet and armor, becoming a follower.

When Charles Xavier uses Cerebro to look for Erik, En Sabah Nur interferes and hacks into Cerebro. He causes the world to disarm itself of all nukes and attempts to use it to find other mutants, but Alex destroys it before he does. En Sabah Nur appears in the mansion and abducts Xavier. Alex tries to stop him, firing a blast, but the blast misses and causes an explosion that destroys the mansion. However, Peter Maximoff saved everyone in time.

Later, in Egypt, En Sabah Nur plots to transfer his consciousness into Xavier to use his superior telepathy. The ritual happens in a pyramid while Erik/Magneto produces a strong magnetic field. Mystique and Peter/Quicksilver try to reason with him, while Nightcrawler/Kurt goes to save Xavier. Nightcrawler has a rematch with Angel and manages to trap him, then saves Xavier and teleports him to William Stryker's stolen jet where Moira and Jean are. The jet is attacked by Angel, who carries Psylocke with him, when they try to escape. The roof is cut off by Psylocke and then Jean uses her powers to sabotage the controls. Nightcrawler teleports them to safety, while Psylocke escapes the plane and Angel was trapped inside. The plane crashes and Angel is seemingly killed, En Sabah Nur looking at his body and declaring that he is useless.

Quicksilver uses his speed to fight En Sabah Nur, but his arm is broken. En Sabah Nur is about to kill him when his throat is suddenly cut by Psylocke, who is really Mystique in disguise. He strangles Mystique, threatening to kill her if Xavier doesn't show himself. Xavier battles En Sabah Nur telepathically and seems to have the advantage until he is overpowered. Magneto and Storm turned on En Sabah Nur, fighting him. En Sabah Nur is kept occupied telepathically fighting Xavier while Storm, Magneto, and Cyclops fight him physically. Jean overpowers En Sabah Nur telepathically, saving Xavier, and then uses her full power. She manifests a Phoenix like state and attacks En Sabah Nur until he deteriorates and his body is disintegrated.

Character traits

To be added

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Essence Transference Ritual: With this ritual he can transfer his life essence from one body to the other, though he requires an ancient Egyptian altar for this ritual. Apocalypse is a being who has accumulated power over the centuries by possessing bodies via an Essence Transference Ritual. Doing so involved a technologically advanced pyramid that when exposed to sunlight, filled with golden liquid that made bluish energy radiate from Apocalypses old body and was then transferred into a new one, which caused the new body to be morphed into a younger version of himself.
- Longevity: Once he transfers his life essence into a younger body after his previous one grows old, thereby starting another life due to such a ritual. However, after gaining accelerated healing abilities, it is likely that he no longer needs the ritual to prolong his life.
- Power Absorption: Every time Apocalypse's essence enters a new host body, not only does he retain all of his previous abilities, but also gains the abilities of his host, which he assimilates into his life essence. As a result, he has capabilities which make him appear to be a Dark Messiah. His powers include:^[2]
  - Accelerated Healing: After he transferred into his last host body, he obtained highly developed accelerated healing abilities. En Sabah Nur was able to instantly heal from a slit throat. His unarmored body was able to mend all the damages done by the combined efforts of Phoenix, Magneto, Cyclops, and finally Storm. However, he was particularly vulnerable to Storm's and Phoenix's attacks, was overpowered by the Phoenix after a minute or less, resulting in his body being destroyed. He had attempted to teleport away before Storm attacked him.
  - Advanced Telekinesis: En Sabah Nur is able to construct a massive pyramid with minor hand gestures. His telekinetic powers are so advanced, that it borders on Matter Manipulation.
    - Matter Control: His telekinetic powers are so advanced, that it borders on matter manipulation. He was able to liquefy the ground in a polish factory, by which the workers were instantly trapped. He was able to disintegrate objects into dust. He was able to use the entire city of Cairo in order to create a new pyramid for his Essence Transference Ritual.
  - Mutant Power Augmentation: He can "upgrade" the power of any mutant he desires to. He was able to give Magneto the ability to manipulate Earth's magnetic fields or give Archangel enhance physical attributes, regeneration and techno-organic wings. He even amplified Storm's atmokinesis, Psyloke's psionic energy based powers and even Professor X's powers, combined with the Cerebro.
  - Accelerated Perception: He was able to see Quicksilver running and even capture him, though it took him an effort to do so.
  - Limited Telepathy: He has shown limited telepathic abilities. He was able to sense the presence of Charles in Magneto's head and even gained temporary control over him. He was able to learn the memories of whomever he chooses to. He was even able to best Xavier in battle on the astral plane. However, he still required Xavier's power so as to gain advanced mind control powers, which was his ultimate goal.
  - Psionic Knowledge Absorption: He was able to learn all the history of the world through an old television set.
  - Shielding: He is able to create a shield around himself & even shield his horseman from psionic attacks.
  - Teleportation: He is able to create an immense sphere or portal of violet light in order to teleport over tremendous distances.
Apocalypse's Armor: His advanced armor gives him extraordinary physical abilities as well.
- Enhanced Strength: Due to the armor, he has displayed a significantly high amount of strength. He was able to lift and strangle Raven with one hand, as well as rag doll Quicksilver and break his leg with a single kick.
- Enhanced Durability: He is extremely durable while in his armored suit, that even Moria stated that he was almost unstoppable. It was only when Phoenix and Storm began attacking him at the same time Magneto and Cyclops did so did his armor break apart, allowing them to destroy him.

Abilities

Expert Manipulator/Tactician/Leader: En Sabah Nur was a highly intelligent being. He had led his horseman through various battles and even manipulated the horseman into joining him.

Weaknesses

Armor Reliance: His greatest vulnerability was mortality, as he could age, rot and decay like normal humans. However after obtaining accelerated healing abilities, it is likely that he is an ageless immortal. Also, he was not indestructible without his armor, as his true body can be damaged and he therefore susceptible to fatal injury. While transferring himself to a new body, he was unconscious and vulnerable to attack, forcing him to rely on his Horsemen to protect him. However, his ability to obtain new powers from every new mutant body he possessed gave him the potential to not only create a younger version of himself, but to permanently obtain the mutants powers. This allowed him to obtain regenerative healing capabilities from his last body. Despite his accelerated healing, he could still be damaged to the point of being obliterated. The Phoenix was able to destroy his armor and damage him continuously with the combined efforts of Magneto, Cyclops, and Storm, until their was nothing left of him to regenerate.

Relationships

Clan Akkaba - Servants
Four Horsemen of Apocalypse - Servants
- Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto - Ally turned enemy
- Ororo Munroe/Storm - Ally turned enemy
- Betsy Braddock/Psylocke
- Warren Worthington III/Angel
X-Men - Enemies.
Charles Xavier - Enemy.
Raven Darkholme/Mystique - Enemy.

Appearances/Actors

Canon (2 films)

- X-Men: Days of Future Past (first appearance) - Brendan Pedder
- X-Men: Apocalypse - Oscar Isaac

Behind the scenes

To be added

Trivia

En Sabah Nur claims that during his lifetime he has been known by the names of many well known deities, including Ra the Egyptian Sun God, Krishna (the Hindu Avatar of Lord Vishnu), and Yahweh (the Supreme God of the Hebrews).