Nergal

Little is known of Nergal’s early past. First recordings of her existence occurred due to an asteroid that descended and crash landed in the Galar region 3,200 years ago. From the asteroid, a Pokémon appeared and began to roam early Galar. Its residual energy from space began to affect those around it, causing those affected by it to transform, gain magical powers, and violently attack the population. The skies quickly grew dark as the Pokémon continued to roam and gain power, causing a crisis of the likes that no one in the area have ever seen. Thus, to save the region, two young boys and two special Pokémon gathered together and challenged the alien Pokémon. The battle was fierce, and, eventually, the alien Pokémon was defeated. The battle left the creature extremely wounded and broken as they fled the scene, not to be seen again.

The Pokémon’s whereabouts would not be known for the next 3,000 years. Rumors occasionally surfaced of a strange Dragon-type Pokémon roaming the world with little direction, causing those who inevitably drew near to disappear or be forever changed by the encounter. Other rumors spread of an even weirder human-like individual by the name of Nergal that lured unsuspecting victims to be subject to her whims and further strange, nebulous goals of hers. Nergal was blamed for the deaths of leaders, the fall of budding civilizations, and even the start of wars; however, none of it could be substantiated.

The Pokémon from the past appeared once more during the creation of Origin City – a large city in the middle of the Sinnoh Region made by Arceus as a celebration of the bond between people and Pokémon – and took the mantle as Nergal, the Dragon-type co-gym leader of the City. For much of the City’s beginning, Nergal enjoyed a peaceful and eventful life. She accepted challengers, befriended several other Legendary Pokémon, and even enjoyed a rivalry in Melony. However, despite all of this, she was still not satisfied. Nergal was still weakened – incomplete compared to her form from before. Yet, she was unallowed to return to the region of her crash landing to find a way to absorb the energy to return to her old state. Not only that, but she was growing bored of the peace in the world – annoyed at the same routine every day.

Her day would come eventually, however.

Eventually, Nergal’s Arceus, Friede, started to distance herself from humanity. She grew increasingly wary and distrusting of humans and those that aligned with them, seeing them as more of a threat to the safety of her and those like her. Nergal used this opportunity as her chance. As Friede became more paranoid and as her heart began to close, Nergal grew closer to Friede while feeding onto Friede’s fears and furthering Friede’s goals. Over the next 100 years, Nergal would become one of Friede’s strongest and closest allies, finding and recruiting several Legendary Pokémon to Friede’s cause.

Then, the fruit of her labor took hold.

Friede and those aligned with her attacked and destroyed the world. Here, Friede temporarily returned Nergal’s full power to her, elevating her strength to new heights. With this new strength, Nergal single-handedly destroyed the entire Galar region and helped to extinguish the human population in the rest of the world. When she and those aligned with her were done, the world had been reduced to rubble, with only the few Legendary Pokémon who fled or hid deep in the world to survive. With her Magnum Opus completed, Nergal left the world, joining Friede on her crusade to purge the multiverse of humanity.

For 100 years, Nergal would join Friede to recruit Arceus to their cause or to annihilate entire worlds; however, on the side, Nergal would venture in the multiverse for her own personal gain. On her journey, Nergal would unlock a vast amount of power, allowing her to manipulate time and space and have the ability to defeat even other Arceus by herself; however, no matter where they went and despite all of the power that Nergal would obtain, she never felt exactly whole. She was never able to obtain her Eternamax form by herself, and Friede would never let her keep it whenever she did grant her the power.

After 100 years of destroying worlds and sewing chaos, Nergal grew bored. After Friede sustained an injury and went to rest and hide in a different world, Nergal spent a few years roaming the multiverse. No matter where she turned, she couldn’t quite figure out how to become whole again, and there wasn’t anything else that piqued her interest. Was the only way to return to her old self to return to her home world and absorb the remaining Dynamax Energy there? But she could only do that if Friede allowed her to, or if Friede were to be defeated–

That’s when Nergal found her breakthrough.

Nergal ventured into Elysium, the world that Friede was hiding. She initially was taking the opportunity to scout the realm for any major threats when she encountered Heidi, a shiny Latias that claimed to share a home world with Friede and wished to stop her. Nergal watched her for a while and even clashed once or twice as she became more interested in Heidi. As time went on, Nergal organized more time to spend with Heidi, spending coffee dates and talks together, and Nergal knew that there was something special about her that kept her attention and intrigue. So, the two were able to talk more and learn about each other – in between fights, of course. Eventually, the Arceus of the world, Izanami, passed away and Heidi took the mantle of Arceus of the world, allowing Nergal to get Heidi to make a promise: that after Heidi ensures the world is safe, that she will help Nergal return to her former glory. Not much is known of what Nergal intends to do with the power when she regains it, but one thing is certain: she intends to see Heidi’s promise all of the way through.