| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Combat | ATK 90 DEF 85 SPR 60 SPD 78 INT 65 |
| Rank | God of the Underworld / God of War and Plague |
| Domain | Plague, Pestilence, War, the Underworld, the Summer Sun |
| Alignment | Mythological -- Wrathful |
| Key Act | Storms the underworld with fourteen demons; becomes Ereshkigal's consort and co-ruler of the dead |
| Source | Nergal and Ereshkigal; 2 Kings 17:30; cult at Kutha |
“Nergal went down the long stairway of heaven. At the gate of the underworld, he said: ‘Gatekeeper, open your gate! I wish to enter.’”
Nergal is the most violent deity in the Mesopotamian system: a war god, a plague god, and — after storming the underworld with an army of demons and seizing Ereshkigal by the hair — co-ruler of the dead (Nergal and Ereshkigal). Unlike other underworld figures who are passive or mournful, Nergal conquers death’s realm by force. He is named in 2 Kings 17:30 as a god worshipped by the men of Cuth (Kutha), who were settled in Samaria after the Assyrian deportation. His portfolio of plague, death, and destructive war maps directly onto the biblical Angel of Death — the unnamed destroyer who kills Egypt’s firstborn (Exodus 12:23), the pestilence angel who slays 70,000 Israelites (2 Samuel 24:15-16), and the angel who kills 185,000 Assyrians in a single night (2 Kings 19:35). Nergal is what the Angel of Death looks like when you give him a name and a throne (Nergal and Ereshkigal; Exodus 12:23).
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