| “ | If orichalcum could make stone and bronze like unto men, surely it could make men like unto gods! I, Nur-Ab-Sal, last of the High Priests, helped fashion the great device which would be a Maker of Gods! The tests on slaves, beggars and thieves bore but a miserable crop of half-formed subhumans! | „ |
| ~ Nur-Ab-Sal telling Indiana Jones about the results of his experiments to attain godhood. |
Nur-Ab-Sal is the overarching antagonist of the 1992 point-and-click adventure video game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the first original Indiana Jones video game, and its tie-in 1991-1992 comic book adaptation of the same name by Dark Horse Comics.
He is the legendary Atlantean god of deceit who ruled over the mystical underwater city of Atlantis centuries before the early 20th century. However, unknown to the experts of Atlantean lore, Nur-Ab-Sal was merely a human priest in Atlantis who wished to attain godhood with the Colossus, a "god-making" machine that would transform humans into supreme beings.
He was voiced by an uncredited PJ Heywood, who also voiced William Afton in the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise. While possessing Sophia Hapgood, he was voiced by Jane Jacobs.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- With all the orichalcum the Great Horned Beings supplied to him and his fellow Atlanteans, Nur-Ab-Sal and his people used part of it for warfare, forcing all nearby island kingdoms to kneel and submit before them. This proves that even before the city's catastrophic fall, Nur-Ab-Sal wasn't a good guy to begin with.
- As the last High Priest of Atlantis, after the Great Horned Beings vanished back to to their realm as Atlantis sunk and became an underwater city, Nur-Ab-Sal assisted in the invention of the Colossus, a "god-making" machine powered by orichalcum with the purpose of turning men into god-like beings like the Horned Beings. However, likely because of their ignorance towards alien technology, Nur-Ab-Sal and the Atlanteans were unable to become gods, but instead anyone who tested the machine was mutated into half-formed subhumans.
- What's worse is that, as his test subjects, Nur-Ab-Sal made use of many slaves, beggars and thieves, deformed them for life and causing misery, mutilation and death. This doesn't count as offscreen villainy, as the comic displays in a flashback how Nur-Ab-Sal mutated his test subjects and the video game shows how his personal abode was filled with calcified hideous skeletions.
- Even if we suppose thieves were tested with as punishment, this is too far for a punishment, not to mention that Nur-Ab-Sal never tested the machine on anyone but himself, proving how selfish he really was.
- What's worse is that, as his test subjects, Nur-Ab-Sal made use of many slaves, beggars and thieves, deformed them for life and causing misery, mutilation and death. This doesn't count as offscreen villainy, as the comic displays in a flashback how Nur-Ab-Sal mutated his test subjects and the video game shows how his personal abode was filled with calcified hideous skeletions.
- Eventually, all the deformed test subjects got enough and rebelled against Nur-Ab-Sal and the normal Atlanteans during the last days of the Atlantean empire, leading to days of bloodshed that claimed thousands of lives, including Nur-Ab-Sal's.
- Impressed his essence into an amber necklace before his death, allowing his spirit to remain bound to the realm of the living as it waited for a host with who he could try to find Atlantis, use the Colossus on himself and attain his so-desired godhood.
- Starts manipulating Sophia Hapgood once she finds his necklace in the Jastro Expedition, allowing him to subtly possess her and inciting her to never let go of the necklace.
- Accompanies Sophia when Indiana Jones comes to ask her for joining him in his search for Atlantis, leading Nur-Ab-Sal to tell Sophia about where to look for the Lost Dialogue of Plato in hopes of the adventuring duo finding Atlantis so he can reach the Colossus. Whenever Jones gets suspicious of Sophia claiming that Nur-Ab-Sal communicates with her, her host would harshly tell Jones off.
- Fully takes over Sophia once she and Jones find Atlantis and make their way into his personal abode, sadistically letting Indy talk to Sophia, who tells him that she can't take off the necklace.
- He comments that Sophia Hapgood and him are now one and the same, so it can be implied that eventually, had Indy not chosen to dispose of the necklace by throwing it into the lava pit and wiping him out, Nur-Ab-Sal was planning to fully take over Sophia's body upon achieving godhood, which in turn would have erased Sophia's identity.
- If Indy chooses to not destroy the necklace and leave Sophia behind like Nur-Ab-Sal ordered him to do, Nur-Ab-Sal takes over Sophia and takes her to the Colossus after Klaus Kerner's death, forcing Hans Ubermann into stepping aside and allow him to be transformed into a being of pure energy by the Colossus, which temporarily makes him a supreme being and knocks Ubermann off to his death (though to be fair, Ubermann deserved it) before exploding, killing Sophia in the process and triggering the destruction of Atlantis, killing all the Nazis there and forcing Indy to escape while depriving him from one of his love interests and from evidence of his latest finding.
- In the comic, Nur-Ab-Sal makes Sophia attack the Nazis by scratching out one of the soldiers in the eyes, even though the soldier wasn't even trying to kill his host, just trying to stop her. Not only that, but once Kerner dies and Ubermann decides to use the Colossus on himself while wearing the necklace, which he took off from Sophia minutes before, it's heavily implied Nur-Ab-Sal opted to kill Ubermann and trigger the destruction of Atlantis out of spite for depriving him from using Sophias his host.
- Unlike Kerner and Ubermann, who are already viler god wannabes due to being power hungry Nazis, their plans on what they would do with their planned godhoods aren't fully elaborated enough, and while Nur-Ab-Sal's weren't similarly fleshed out, his act of mutating his subjects despite only mutilating and deforming them is quite unique to help him stand out. Surprisingly, it says something how Kerner and Ubermman didn't test the Colossus on anyone but themselves despite their threats to Jones.
Trivia[]
- In the eight issue of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, it's mentioned that the Shintay were banished from Atlantis due to worshipping death in contrast to how the Atlanteans revered life. However, it's unknown whether Nur-Ab-Sal was among those Atlanteans who revered life due to him being evidently not a Shintay. If it were confirmed that Nur-Ab-Sal felt genuinely disgust at the Shintay, then that could strip him from his Pure Evil status.
- That said, apart that the Shintay debuted much earlier than Nur-Ab-Sal, it's unlikely that Nur-Ab-Sal had redeeming standards given how his obsession with godhood led to several Atlanteans suffering fates worst than death, which could mean he revered life by assuming that becoming a god was that, not to mention that Nur-Ab-Sal may not have been born yet when the Shintay were banished.
- Nur-Ab-Sal is, alongside General Makimura and Masashi Kyojo, one of the three Pure Evils of the Indiana Jones franchise to not originate from live-action media.
External Links[]
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 Pure Evils
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Mola Ram |
Nur-Ab-Sal |
Masashi Kyojo |
Mattias Targo |
General Makimura |
Jürgen Voller |
Klaber | ||
 Pure Evils
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Live-Action Films Animated Television Live-Action Television Video Games See Also | ||